Cosmic Apathy
by Aeternus.Flamma
Summary: After an eternity of living out her days alone, missing her friends and family, Sailor Cosmos refuses to fight for the realms. In an attempt to remind her of her humanity, she is dropped into a needy realm and forced to survive without the Silver Crystal. [01xUsagi/Sailor Cosmos]
1. Chapter 1

Cosmic Apathy

T

 _After an eternity of living out her days alone, missing her friends and family, Sailor Cosmos refuses to fight for the realms. In an attempt to remind her of her humanity, she is dropped into a needy realm and forced to survive without the Silver Crystal. [01xUsagi/Sailor Cosmos]_

000

Prologue

000

When she first started to come-to, she realized that her legs hurt. _Really_ hurt. She forced herself to roll onto her side, trying to sit upright in the mess of cement rubble she was laying in and on. Her head was spinning and her vision foggy—how had this happened? It had to have been a youma attack. Yes, that was it; she must have been fighting and fell unconscious.

There was movement close to her legs. One of the cement slabs shifted before being lifted, revealing a black mass of a beast. She realized that it's clawed had was wrapped around her leg and corroding her skin. A surge of adrenaline pumped through her as she realized she was still under attack. She jerked her leg back, but the grip only tightened, causing a choked gasp to come from her throat.

Where was her staff? She grasped around for a moment, hoping it was nearby in the destruction, but she couldn't find it.

The beast started to stand, pulling her leg with it. She tried to kick it with her leg, only to realize that she wasn't wearing her boots. Or her fuku. Or her broach.

In fact, she wasn't Sailor Cosmos at all. She wasn't wearing anything but a silver slip. She may as well have been naked, for all the good it did her.

As the panic and fear started to rise within her, so did the beast's fury. She tried to hold onto the cement as it raised her higher, but with one quick jerk, she was sent flying against the wall. It still and hold of her as it smashed her again, and again. Blood poured from her skull and her vision blurred. This was it; it was surely the end for her, and she couldn't even remember how she managed to get herself into this situation.

The pain became too much to bear and she didn't have the ability to fight. Just as she felt she would black out (or perhaps die,) every last bit of power she had within her body pooled together before bursting forth from her body. It was painful since she didn't have the Silver Crystal to act as a focus for the power, but it hardly mattered with the rest of her body as numb as it was.

There was a blinding white light which filled the room—a warehouse of sorts, it seemed—and disintegrated the youma. However, the surge was so powerful that it also managed to demolish the walls and ceiling, blasting them outwards as if an explosion had happened where she stood.

She remained on the ground for sometime after the area cleared. It took her sometime before she realized that she no longer had blood gushing from her head and body, and that the liquid she was feeling was actually rain. Her body ached, but the horrible agony she had been in only moments earlier had disappeared. The majority of her wounds closed up, though some of the more severe injuries remained though lessened.

After catching her breath and clearing her head, she struggled to climb from the crater she now lay in as it started to fill with water. It was hard to walk. Her legs were horribly bruised—though the destroyed skin was repaired, it left a purple and black mark in its wake. The area was covered in cement and glass, with occasional pieces of metal rods jutting out from the destroyed slabs. Her feet were cut up after just walking a few yards.

The rain came down in heavy sheets, but she didn't particularly mind. The cool water washed away some of the blood that had spilled from her wounds, though her silver slip was thoroughly stained. Though the fabric had become near sheer as it stick to her body, there didn't seem to be anyone around to notice. It was torn in many areas, in fact, it was barely held together in most places.

She had become so accustomed to remaining in her senshi uniform that she had almost completely forgotten what she had on when not transformed.

For the briefest of moments, she considered trying to dig through the rubble for her broach. However, she knew there was no point. If the Silver Crystal was nearby, she would have felt it's energy pulsing through her own body. It wasn't here—it wasn't anywhere in the surrounding area.

With a sigh, she closed her eyes and tilted her head upwards, letting the water wash away the dirt and blood from her cheeks and forehead. That was it. She didn't have the Silver Crystal and her body had already expelled any residual cosmic energy. She had nothing but her memories and her possibly-mortal body.

000

 _"Please, Cosmos, if you do not stop them, that realm will be destroyed!" Pluto pleaded from just below the dais Cosmos's throne sat upon._

 _She did not even open her eyes. Cosmos sat in the throne, her legs draped across one of the arms in her boredom. "Realms are destroyed all of the time."_

 _Pluto hit her Time Staff against the white floor in frustration, the sound echoing through the room. "It is your_ _ **duty**_ _to protect all realms from such invading darkness! How can you sit there, and leave them all to die! That realm has struggled to survive, and now that they may just make it, you're going to leave them to those Tao Nebula parasites!"_

 _The dark haired senshi paced back and forth, wiping a gloved hand down her face in aggravation and stress. This was not the first time that Cosmos had chosen to shirk her duties. Pluto had hoped that it was only a 'phase' and that the Supreme Guardian would return to protecting the innocent. Pluto understood the despair that came with an eternity of loneliness—she was living it too, after all. She had never been as unfeeling as Cosmos had become, however._

 _Finally, as if growing annoyed by Pluto's incessant marching about, Cosmos sighed. "That_ _ **realm**_ _," she said, perhaps a bit of venom in her voice, "seems quite set on destroying itself. It hardly seems worthwhile for me to fight for it when it will probably kill its own planet in a chain of nuclear explosions. Pharaoh 19 will simply speed up the process. Who knows—perhaps they will manage to kill the heart snatchers at the same time as themselves."_

 _Pluto stopped her pacing and looked up at her supposed queen with betrayal in her eyes. "What happened to you? When did you become so apathetic? I know that these last centuries have been difficult for you… but to abandon a realm in need and watch it like some….some experiment? Where is the Usagi that I've always known and loved?"_

 _Cosmos laughed—loudly and bitterly. "Usagi? Usagi's been dead for millenniums. I'm all that's left."_

000

"I've found ground zero of the explosion."

 _"Roger that, Zero-One, need back up?"_ Trowa's voice rang out over their communication line.

"Negative, no suits in the area. I'm not picking up any other explosives. Stand by as a precaution." Heero scanned the ground from his gundam as he closed in on the near demolished warehouse. It had been pure luck that he had been in the area at the time of the explosion. Had he not left the Preventers' base when he did to investigate an anomaly on their monitoring system, the local authorities may have beaten him to the scene.

They had been tracking odd energy sources across the globe for some time, but they had never been able to get to the locations fast enough. The energy seemed to burst into existence then dulled to an untraceable level. However, this was the first time that they had left an explosion in their wake.

Heero looked over his scans as he slowed to a hover just above the building. He had to check the twice as well as look at his cameras to be sure he was seeing everything correctly.

There was no sign of anything that could have produced the explosion—no power sources, no residual energy… there were even active power lines in the area. He should have been able to detect at least what sort of explosion had occurred, but it was more like a naturally occurring micro-burst that just happened to have hit the warehouse than an incited explosion.

They wouldn't have picked up a micro-burst on their monitoring system however. It had certainly been an energy explosion of some sort.

The oddest matter however wasn't lack of evidence, it was the young woman who was casually standing just a few yards away from the explosion site. He turned his spot light onto her and zoomed his camera in to get a better look.

She appeared to be injured and not at all fazed by the large mobile suit pointing its beam canon at her. Her hair nearly white hair was done up in some sort of odd bun style that he found ridiculous and impractical, with strands sticking to her face, arms, and even her legs—it was _that_ long. Her clothing was almost non-existent.

Heero chose to land his gundam and leave his cockpit, weapon in hand. He dropped down on his lift cable and aimed his gun, blocking her way in case she tried to make a run away from the crumbling warehouse. She was absolutely drenched, and he could practically see through her thin garment. Well, at least he knew she was unarmed.

"Don't move," he shouted through the rain, though the woman hardly looked as if she had any inclination to move at all. "Who are you?"

At his question, she tilted her head down and looked at him. She tilted her head and flicked her eyes along his form. Heero couldn't help but relate it to a cat eyeing up her prey.

"I said, 'who are you?'" He cocked his gun, letting the clicking sound resonate in the air. It was usually enough to make his enemies talk.

She smiled slightly at him, and seemed to laugh before shaking her head and loudly sighing. "Who am I? Honestly, I'm not even sure anymore."

000

 _Author's Notes: I have been on Gundam Wing kick, and I'll be posting the final five chapters to my Gundam Wing fic, After Colony: Revelation, throughout the next few weeks. I haven't written a crossover in ages, and in fact, I don't think I've ever posted one. So, I decided to give it a shot._

 _These are two of my all time favorite fandoms, and I promise I do know a lot about them. If I deviate from the canon, it's likely intentional. For example, I did mean "Pharaoh 19" instead of "Pharaoh 90." The heart snatchers were my favorite arc and I'm bringing aspects of the Tao Nebula realm into this. The Gundams have not been destroyed, though this does take place after Endless Waltz. The Preventers decided to keep using them._

 _Also, it is likely that only one other senshi will make an appearance beyond Cosmos and Pluto, but I haven't decided for sure (I also know that technically, by this point in time, Cosmos wouldn't have had any senshi with her, but I'm bending that for my story). To be honest, I barely have a plot. This sort of just came to me and I thought I would give it a shot. Are there even readers out there for this sort of story anymore? I feel like I must be one of the only ones looking for a SM/GW fanfic!_

 _Ever Your Servant,_

 _A.F_


	2. Chapter 2

Cosmic Apathy

T

 _After an eternity of living out her days alone, missing her friends and family, Sailor Cosmos refuses to fight for the realms. In an attempt to remind her of her humanity, she is dropped into a needy realm and forced to survive without the Silver Crystal [01xUsagi/Sailor Cosmos]_

000

Chapter One

000

" _Really_ Heero? Handcuffs?" Sally said in a huff, her hands on her hips, "what did you expect? That she was hiding a firearm in her nightgown? That a badly injured, hundred-twenty pound girl was going to overpower you?"

The gundam pilot ignored the Preventers' Doctor and turned up the volume on the news, much to her dismay.

 _"… There was some sort of explosion at just about eight-twenty this evening, and authorities have not yet determined the cause. At this time, no information has been released regarding any possible casualties. The warehouse had been abandoned for some time, though sources claim that it isn't uncommon for teenagers to hold parties in the warehouse. Residents of the area have reported seeing the gundam Wing Zero flying to the scene, though the Preventers have not commented as to why a gundam would have been in the area…"_

He clicked off the TV and stood, immediately heading for door Sally had just come from. Before he could reach it, she jumped back and blocked it, her hands on either side of the door frame.

"Oh no you don't, you aren't allowed to question that poor girl. We aren't playing good-cop-bad-cop here; Quatre will be here around noon tomorrow. _He_ can talk to her. You really need to learn some tact, Heero," Sally said with a scowl. The gundam pilot may have been trying to stare her down, but she had learned long ago how to hold her own (luckily, working with Wufei for a few years had certainly helped.)

He didn't budge. "The longer she sits, the longer she has to come up with a story. We're more likely to get to the truth if we question her _now_."

"Well, I have her on an IV drip. The sedatives should keep her out for most of the night," Sally said and crossed her arms, a smirk of satisfaction on her lips. Once she moved her arms, Heero took the opportunity to shove past her. She let him go for a few moments before trailing after him, just to make sure he didn't try anything stupid with her patient.

The medical wing of the Preventers' Base was not exactly a hospital. It had a large room with nine beds, all with their own curtains and end tables, and one workstation near the entrance of the room. Since they hadn't had anyone in their 'sick bay' for a while, the room had gone largely unused. There wasn't even a computer at the desk. Sally intended to bring her laptop up and sit on duty, just in case their mystery woman was to wake up. Trowa had agreed to relieve her in a little over an hour so she could get some sleep before checking up in the morning.

Only one of the sets of curtains was drawn around a bed. Heero wasted no time marching over and pulling them back.

But it was just as Sally said. The woman was laying still, deep in an induced sleep. He could see the IV attached to her arm.

"Fractured skull, dislocated shoulder, broken wrist, bruised ribs… Her legs look like had been repeatedly beaten, one of her ankles is twists, and her feet are all cut up—probably from walking through the rubble of the warehouse without shoes." Sally sighed and sat down on the bed just behind Heero. "She had blood on her, but I couldn't find where some of it could have come from. It may not have been hers."

Heero did not respond, instead, he just continued to stare at the woman sleeping peacefully. Half of the room had large windows that normally allowed for the sun to pour in—Sally insisted it was good for patients' health—but tonight, there was a storm raging. Thunder rumbled and occasionally lightning would flash.

He wasn't exactly sure _why_ , but he certainly felt uneasy.

"This cut," he said and pointed to a thin line that went from the woman's ear to her jaw, "it was longer when I found her."

Sally fought the urge to roll her eyes. "Well, she was a mess Heero, what did you expect? She let me clean her up. The wound doesn't look as bad now."

He narrowed his eyes and reached into his jacket. "No, it's not that. It was _definitely_ worse just a few hours ago." Heero pulled out his set of handcuffs once more and clasped it around the woman's wrist and the metal bar along the bed before Sally could stop him. "I want a set of eyes on her at all time. Keep the curtains drawn."

He turned and swiftly exited the hospital wing, off to do who-knows-what. Sally watched him, slack jawed, as he went. Sure, she probably could have picked the lock if she really wanted and had enough uninterrupted time to do so. However, she knew it was useless. He would likely periodically check, at least through the security monitors, just to makes sure she was still restrained.

"You sure left a bad taste in his mouth," Sally sighed to the unconscious woman. She stood and leaned over, smoothing some of the strands of silvery-white hair from the woman's cheek and neck.

Sally couldn't imagine what had Heero all worked up. She honestly felt that the woman was likely some sort of victim in the whole mess. Most of her injuries were not congruent with an explosion—it looked more like she had been attacked. Some of her wounds looked old however, which led Sally to believe that perhaps her patient had suffered periods of abuse.

She hardly considered herself spiritual; she mostly left those sorts of things to Quatre and Wufei, in one respect or another. She could rarely say that she had gut feelings. However, Sally was certain that her patient was not a threat. She may not have been willing to speak, much less provide her name, but Sally wasn't bothered by it. Perhaps there was a reason that the silently apathetic woman was tossed in their direction.

000

It was in the early hours of the morning when Cosmos first started to come-to once more. Her eyes were heavy and her body ached. She may have wanted to take time to rest, but when she realized that she was cuffed to her (warm) bed, her heart started to pound. Where was she? How did she get here?

She pulled against the metal, causing it to rattle loudly in the silent room. The noise caused her to jump and she immediately glanced around to see if anyone had noticed. They hadn't. She was alone.

If she had still had her power, she could have summoned the essence of Mercury and frozen it, then shattered it completely. Instead, she reached up into her heart shaped buns and poked around until she could find a slim metal pin. It was similar to a bobby pin, but considerably more durable. How else was she supposed to keep her hair in such a ridiculous hairstyle?

Cosmos had to carefully maneuver her left arm since it had a needle pushed deep within it. It was a slow process, and rather painful, but after a few minutes, she did hear a _click_ and the cuff around her right wrist unlatched. She realized as she tried to bend it that it may have been broken—which would explain the gauze tightly wrapped around it for the moment. She would probably need a cast, depending on how fast her body decided to try to heal itself.

It was difficult for her to get the IV from her arm since her right hand was so tightly bound, but she did. She had to hurry and cover the area when it started to bleed. After a few moments without the IV drip flowing into her body, she started to feel a bit light headed.

Still, she didn't have time to waste. She had to get out of there. Though Cosmos remembered that the woman who had helped her had been rather kind through the whole ordeal, she also vaguely recalled the young man who tightly cuffed her, making her stand just below a giant robot of some sort in the rain while waiting for someone to come via helicopter to take her away.

Cosmos certainly didn't want risk being interrogated by that young man—the one with the cold, dark blue eyes.

Gathering her strength, she took a deep breath and tossed the blanket off of her legs.

 _Ugh,_ she couldn't help but think, looking down at herself in her flimsy hospital gown, _I look like I just walked out of a battle with Chaos, not a heart snatcher…_

She placed one tentative step on the ground and winced in pain. Though her body had already taken care of some of the smaller scratches, she had a hard time with the cuts and bruises on the pads of her feet. Once she felt she had enough balance, she tried to place her other foot down.

As soon as did, she realized that her ankle was likely twisted. Well, she couldn't say she was surprised. The beast did grab her by that leg and swing her about like a rag doll. Cosmos inhaled sharply at the pain but continued to try to limp forward. She could heal on her own, most likely, without the aid of the medical equipment. If she could just get out, then she would be fine to find a place to lay low and recover until she could figure out how to get back to her own palace and away from this realm.

Bracing herself the inevitable pain, she started to stumble towards the door. It was unlocked. Apparently, whoever had thought she was of concern enough to handcuff (probably the blue-eyed man), hadn't felt it was necessary to keep the door to the room locked. She was about to hurry into the hallway when she paused.

There was a large jacket sitting on the back of the desk chair next to the door. She hobbled over and put it over herself, giving her more coverage than her hospital gown. She figured the man must have been tall since it went to her thighs, but was thankful for it.

Once settled, she quickly opened the door, relieved to find the hall abandoned.

She looked down to the right, then the left. The left side continued on, while the right went just a bit further than had a sign for an emergency exit.

 _Perfect_ , she thought and slipped out of the hospital room. Unfortunately, it seemed that the hallway lights were motion activated, much to her dismay. As soon as she headed for the emergency exit, the hall lights kicked on. If someone came looking for her too soon, they would notice that someone had walked out of the room.

Well, it wasn't as if she had much choice. She went to the door and pushed into the stairwell. It looked like the building continued up a few more floors, and down a few as well. Cosmos awkwardly limped down, step by step, trying to keep weight off of her twisted ankle. Luckily, she only had to only go down one flight before she was at the exit.

It was still raining. She supposed she hadn't really looked out of the window to be sure, but it was hard to tell by looking out into the darkness anyhow. From down below, there were lights on the lawn that worked as a backdrop for the falling rain. She stepped back and looked at the door one more time.

As soon as she opened the door, it was likely that there was an alarm that would sound. She would have to immediately try to find cover before they could catch her again.

Across the lawn appeared to be trees—once there was a flash of lightning, she was sure that it was a forest. Hopefully if she could get into the foliage, it would be enough for Cosmos to evade her captors.

Taking a deep breath, she prepared to make a run for it. She was just starting to have second thoughts when she heard the stairwell door from the floor above her.

 _Here goes nothing_.

Not waiting for someone to come down the stairs after her, she shoved the door open and made a run for it—which was extremely difficult because of her twisted ankle and the slick ground. She didn't make it very far before floodlights kicked on. They were most likely also motion activated much to her dismay. There was shouting behind her, though she thought it was possibly just one voice shouting at her to stop. It was hard to tell through the rumbling of thunder and crashes of lightning.

Unfortunately, the man chasing Cosmos was a great deal faster: partially because he was wearing shoes, and mostly because he wasn't injured. She felt him coming up behind her and side stepped just in time to feel his fingers scrape against her left arm. She tried to swerve again to throw her pursuer off, but she stepped poorly on her injured ankle, and pain shot through her body. She went down in moments, screeching as she landed on her broken wrist.

Her attacker grabbed her by the back of the oversized coat and flipped her over, where she cradled her even more injured wrist, her eyes squeezed shut. He placed his hand on her collar bone, holding her in placed, and placed his weight on her thighs, keeping her from struggling.

She only opened her eyes when she felt the cold metal of a gun placed against her temple.

It was hard to see, with the rain in her eyes and the floodlights blinding her, but she knew it was the man who had brought her to the facility in the first place. His face was completely void of emotion, but when the lighting lit up the sky and his body, she knew what his dark blue eyes were saying.

She shouldn't have run.

000

 _Author's Note: I do see that some people are clicking, though only one of the many decided to review. I am very thankful for that review however, as it means that there are people who are still interested in this particular fandom. So thank you, guest reviewer_ _ **flu**_ _, for letting me know you like the concept!_

 _I am not sure how often I will update or how long chapters will be. I write everything chapter by chapter, and I sort of only have a general direction of where I'm going with this, so we'll see how things turn up. One thing I can say for certain is that Cosmos will not continue to be called 'Cosmos.' It's odder than even "Duo" in my opinion as far as first names go so…. Yeah. Also, readers of After Colony: Revelation, rejoice? Sally's alive in this one!_

 _Thanks for reading!_

 _Ever Your Servant,_

 _A.F_


	3. Chapter 3

Cosmic Apathy

T

 _After an eternity of living out her days alone, missing her friends and family, Sailor Cosmos refuses to fight for the realms. In an attempt to remind her of her humanity, she is dropped into a needy realm and forced to survive without the Silver Crystal [01xUsagi/Sailor Cosmos]_

000

Chapter Two

000

This time, they did not take her back to the hospital wing. They did not clean her up and tend to her wounds. They did, however, more thoroughly search her, much to her dismay. The female doctor thought to undo her heart-shaped buns and take the pins before they cuffed her to a metal chair in an interrogation room.

Cosmos felt as if the doctor were giving her disappointed looks. Though she was gentle enough with her, the doctor wouldn't make eye contact.

Her captors took the oversized jacket from her, leaving her in her wet and muddied hospital gown. The interrogation room was quite cold, and it didn't take long before she started shivering. They left her alone in her discomfort, though she was sure that at least one set of eyes were staring at her through the two way mirror.

She wasn't sure how long she had sat before she had fallen asleep. Though she would have preferred to stay awake, she was simply too tired. Her body was trying to pull together whatever energy she had to heal itself, which really only left her feeling drained. There were no clocks in the room, nor any windows, so by the time the door opened again and she jolted awake, Cosmos had no idea how long she had been asleep.

The man who entered was different from the one she had seen earlier, much to her delight. He was blonde and well dressed, unlike the other man and the doctor, who seemed to wear similar uniforms. He was carrying a large bowl with him—at first she thought it was food, but then when she saw the soap and wash cloth in his hands, she realized that it was for her to wash off some of the mud and blood.

Honestly, that was even better than food at the moment. Of course she was _starving_ , but the bits of muck drying on her were making her itch and made her feel awful.

He set the bowl and the supplies down before walking to her side and uncuffing both of her wrists. She rubbed them lightly, careful not to squeeze her broken wrist too much, and stared up at him.

"I can't believe they left you alone in here for so long," he said, sounding as if he were scolding someone. He probably was, if someone were watching through the mirror still. "Now, just so you know, the door is locked, so even if you try to make a run for it, you won't be able to get out of here. It's not my ideal situation, but apparently you've made quite the impression on my companions, and they aren't willing to take another chance with you."

Her eyes flickered to the door, which was only a few feet from her captor. She doubted she could reach it without him subduing her. While he certainly didn't look like the fighting time, she supposed that it was unlikely that someone would lock themselves in a room with a prisoner without at least expecting to be able to defend themselves.

"Please miss, if you wish, you can wash off a bit. Sally had wanted to help you clean up and check over you again, but Heero wouldn't allow her after your escapades."

Cosmos looked up at him, surprised to find that he was smiling at her a bit. He didn't seem angry at her at all for causing them so much trouble.

In fact, the longer she stared at him, the longer his clear blue eyes started to seem familiar to her. It took her a few moments to place it, but she realized that he reminded her of Mercury. His eyes were soft and kind, but they certainly held intellect and perhaps a bit of loneliness or sadness. She found him to be… trustworthy. Though she could hardly explain _why_ she felt that way, she had learned long ago not to question her own instinct.

She pulled the bowl closer to her and dipped the cloth in it before putting it to her face, sighing softly. The warm water felt glorious against her cold skin.

Her captor sat patiently as she gently cleaned her face and neck before moving down her arms. The water dirtied quickly, though she hardly minded. Anything was better than how she had been feeling.

"My name is Quatre. I've only just got in, so I don't know too much about what's going on. Sally—she's the doctor—she said that you appeared to be rather badly injured by an explosion at a warehouse. May I ask how you got to such a remote location in the first place? I'm not sure anyone can fathom a guess as to why a woman in a night gown was in the middle of nowhere." Her captor leaned forward slightly, clasping his hands in front of him.

Though she suspected that they were being recorded, it put her at a bit more ease knowing that he wasn't sitting there taking notes on her.

"I don't know how I ended up there," she said, quite honestly, "I was sleeping. When I woke up, I was in a pile of debris. I tried to leave, but it was hard to move. I barely managed to get a few yards from where I awoke when a large robot flew overhead. Then the other man got out of it and pointed his gun at me. He cuffed me and had me wait in the rain until someone else came to get me."

Quatre sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Heero, he's the one who found you. He's… he's not known for using much tact. He sees everything as a threat until determined otherwise. And even then, he is still stand offish."

"He didn't give me his name, he didn't explain why he was… arresting me, or whatever this is," Cosmos said and motioned about the interrogation cell. "I then woke up in what was clearly not a hospital, hand cuffed to a bed. I didn't initially remember how I managed to get there, so I panicked. I was afraid of what he was doing to me. Is it a surprise that I ran?"

He shook his head and frowned. "No, of course not. The man who picked you up in the helicopter was supposed to be watching you. He had just stepped out to get more coffee when you awoke. I wish he had been sitting there. He may be rather quiet, but he's still better than Heero in these situations. He could have at least assured you that you were safe."

Cosmos gave a bit of a snort, indicating that she would have hardly believed him.

Quatre smiled a bit guiltily. "Perhaps he wouldn't have been much better. Now, may I ask your name? I feel rather impolite just calling you, 'you.'"

She swallowed hard and adverted her gaze. She couldn't very well call herself Cosmos, as she doubted that it would be a name, even in this realm. Quatre, Heero, Sally… They obviously had a variety of names, and they all spoke English. She supposed she could call herself Serenity, but she felt that it was more likely cause her pain an unwanted memories from living by that name for so long.

"Usagi," she replied after a few moments. She couldn't tell if he thought she was thinking about telling him, or if she was making up a name. Either way, he smiled at her.

"That's Japanese for rabbit, isn't it? Well, I suppose that suits you quite well, with how quickly you managed to scurry away last night!" He seemed genuinely happy that she answered him.

She had to wonder—if he had been the one to find her first, would she have been so quick to leave? Would she have been so stubborn in answering their questions?

"Alright then, Miss Usagi, if you will promise not to try to run off as soon as you're out of here, why don't we get you some fresh clothes and something to eat?"

Unfortunately for her, her stomach rumbled loudly in response. As usual, it seemed to have a mind of its own. She looked away from him and flushed slightly.

000

Just over an hour later, Usagi had managed to bath herself in one of the hospital wing bathtubs and change into the clothes she was provided. She did her best to wash her hair and then tie some of it in a bun. She didn't have any hair pins, so she couldn't put it up in her one of her signature bun looks. Quatre never left the hospital room, though he was polite enough to help her draw the curtains so that she could change in privacy.

While she had been changing, she was sure that Heero had come searching for her again. Quatre did not let him in the room, however. Instead, he was rather stern with the dark haired man and insisted that he leave Usagi alone. She was relieved that Quatre had spoken up for her. She preferred to avoid Heero's cold gaze for as long as possible.

She thought that she would be eating in the hospital wing, but she was pleasantly surprised when Quatre invited her into his office. Usagi gathered that he must have been one of the organization's big-shots, based upon his office.

It had hardwood floors with an expensive looking rug beneath a cherry colored desk. He had a leather couch against the right wall with a large portrait hanging above it. It was a desertscape with a setting sun. Usagi found it interesting, if for no more reason than its peculiarity. She thought offices usually had things like bland watercolors.

There were four televisions mounted to the wall across from the couch. Currently only two were turned on—one showing business related news and stock market information, and the other airing a broadcaster standing outside of the mostly demolished warehouse. Usagi couldn't help but wonder why, exactly, he needed four screens, but she couldn't say she had ever been in some sort of corporate office. Maybe this was just common practice.

There were large windows behind Quatre's desk, and a glass door just to the right. It had apparently stopped raining which allowed for lunch to be brought to his private patio for the two of them to share. After being confined for some nine hours in the interrogation room, she was glad to be allowed in the fresh air.

Usagi barely managed to stop herself from drooling at the food set out in front of her. After she took her seat on the padded chair, a small foot rest conveniently provided for her to prop up her twisted ankle, Quatre removed lids from the plates on the tables. Though it was almost one in the afternoon, the foods seemed to be a bit more breakfast—not that she minded. She was thrilled to have delicious eggs, sausage, and crapes.

She would have happily devoured the food in front of her, and made a proper fool out of herself, but her injured wrist forced her to take it slowly.

There was still the feel of rain in the air, though it was partly sunny while they ate. Usagi could see the a bit more of landscape from the patio on the fourth floor than she could in the hospital on the second. The lawn looked as though it were set up to have numerous landing areas for aerial crafts, which tall trees just beyond it. She hadn't been on this side of the building when she made a run for it, but she supposed it looked similar anyhow.

They seemed to be on a hill or mountain. She could see that to her right, there were tall rock formations that may have led into mountainside, though she could see it from where she sat. Beyond the trees she could see city structures, but she could tell it was quite a bit away.

So she was stuck here, in this building, whatever it was.

Quatre politely dabbed his mouth with his napkin before setting it down. They had made polite conversation, though it was mostly about the weather. He had avoided any important topics until they had finished eating and she was no longer suffering from hunger.

"Miss Usagi, I don't want you to feel like a prisoner here, but you have to understand, there are other people who are interested in getting their hands on you for questioning about the explosion at the warehouse. As long as you're in our custody, we can keep them back, but as soon as you're gone, the authorities will try to grab you."

Usagi furrowed her brows. "So… you _aren't_ the authorities?" She had assumed that they were the police, or maybe more like the military based upon the way they had spirited away from the warehouse to this unknown location.

"Not exactly… We're called the Preventers. We're a peacekeeping organization. We monitor the Earth as well as the Colonies in order to keep military skirmishes from breaking out. We're a relatively new organization. We've only been operating for about eight years. While we've been very successful, things have been getting a bit complicated lately. There are things we just can't stop," Quatre said with a frown and shrugged. "Unfortunately, you've been caught in that mess."

She nodded and poured herself a fresh cup of tea before bringing it to her lips. It was different than she was used to, but she liked it nonetheless. "And how have I managed to do that?"

Seeing how she seemed willing enough to continue the conversation, Quatre poured himself a cup as well and relaxed a bit. "There was a surge of energy where we found you. Those same surges have been detected all across the globe—though the colonies seem safe, for the time being. Heero suspected you of detonating whatever caused the explosion, but I don't believe that is the case. However there is satellite footage showing you at the location, and the police are currently trying to track you down for terrorist activity."

Well, damn. She had known this realm was technologically superior to the world she had been raised in, but she certainly wasn't expecting them to be able to act so fast. She wasn't exactly the run-of-the-mill sort of girl, and would likely stick out anywhere she went. She couldn't possibly hope to hide for long without someone spotting her and turning her in.

"And what do you want from me, then, if you don't believe I caused the explosion?" She asked and set her cup down. Fear started to bubble inside of her as the idea of horrible experiments crossed her mind. However, Quatre smiled at her and immediately squashed all of said terror.

"Right now? Well… nothing. We just want to protect you while we try to figure out what is happening to our world."

Usagi narrowed her eyes and slightly grasped the fabric on her skirt.

She didn't like the way he said _"our world."_

000

 _Author's Notes: from here on out, Cosmos will be Usagi. I know it starts to get complicated with past lives and reincarnation and evolution…. But Cosmos is Usagi. I also promise that this_ _ **is**_ _a HeeroxUsagi fic, but I don't care for the stories where it's just kinda… BAM, LOVE. I prefer a build up and tension, so that's what I'm going for._

 _So, the Preventers have been a real thing for about eight years, which puts this at approximately AC 204, since they became prominent in AC 196. The ages of the pilots are as follows 01, 02, 04, 05, around 24/25. 03 is 27/28 (if you've read Trowa's origin story, you can calculate his age to be about three years older than the rest.)_

 _Thank you to_ _ **Flu**_ _for sending me a very understanding review. I'm guessing you can relate to my feelings! Thank you for taking the time to shoot me another review, it does put a smile on my face! If you start writing something, let me know! I will check it out!_

 _Thanks everyone for reading!_

 _Ever Your Servant,_

 _A.F_


	4. Chapter 4

Cosmic Apathy

T

 _After an eternity of living out her days alone, missing her friends and family, Sailor Cosmos refuses to fight for the realms. In an attempt to remind her of her humanity, she is dropped into a needy realm and forced to survive without the Silver Crystal [01xUsagi/Sailor Cosmos]_

000

Chapter Three

000

After Usagi agreed to _mostly_ cooperate with the Preventers and not go running off by herself, Quatre was happy to assign her to her own quarters.

The Preventers building was rather large, but that was to be expected since it was their main base of operations. The first floor had a guest check in and a small cafeteria. There was an entertainment room as well which could be utilized by the permanent residents, as well as guests. It had table tennis, a pool table, a round table that sat eight, and a lounge with a television screen that took up most of the wall. On the opposite side of the building, there was a small green house with rather lovely gardens.

The second floor had the medical wing on the right, a large dining room on the left, and a rather extensive library making up the middle. The medical room was more than just the large room Usagi had first been in, there were also a few check up rooms, a surgery room, and Sally's office. There was another desk in it, likely for whoever covered for her when she was off.

The third floor was almost all conference rooms of varying sizes and purposes. Some were set up with computer work stations to act as a command center. Others had bars in the back and seemed as if they were more for entertaining than work. One had a set up for what appeared to be broadcasted announcements from the Preventers' base.

All of the offices were housed on the fourth floor, though none were as nice as Quatre's. Apparently being the face of the Preventers' had its perks, though he told Usagi it certainly kept him busy.

The fifth floor, which as high as one could go before reaching the attic, was the dormitories. Those who were at least semi permanent residents, like Quatre, Trowa, and Sally, had nice, spacious rooms to help create a barrier between their work and personal lives. Usagi did _not_ get one of those rooms. She was put into one of the smaller rooms, though she was thankful enough that it was private. While the based hardly seemed busy, she wouldn't have been thrilled to be sharing close quarters with a stranger.

The windows were wired and the Preventers would be alerted if she opened one. She wasn't allowed to lock her door, though it was pointless since she assumed most of the people she had thus far met had keys anyhow. If she were to use the internet or try to make a phone call (though only the conference rooms had land line phones) her usage would be recorded. That hardly mattered, since she didn't have anyone to contact anyhow.

Her room was set up with a twin bed, an end table, a dresser, and a desk. Quatre had a television moved in for her entertainment, but he didn't provide her with a laptop. She thanked him even though she felt she would have been fine without any form of entertainment. She had lived a very long time with her boredom.

All in all, it could have been worse. The room was fine and it was hers for as long as she had to stay cooped up. The most annoying aspect was that there were two doors into the bathroom that she used—one from her end, and one that opened up into another room. She tried to open it, but she found it was locked.

Even though she hadn't heard any movement, she determined that someone _was_ using the other room, and it wasn't just locked to keep her out. The shower curtain was wet and the bathroom vaguely smelled like soap, rather than cleaning solution. Someone had been in there showering, not cleaning for her.

"They didn't say I couldn't lock the bathroom door," she muttered to herself and exited, locking it behind her.

Sally provided her with a few sets of clothing, linens, and hygiene products—soap, shampoo, hairbrush, tooth brush and toothpaste. The clothes were all rather plain. Apparently, they had already given her the one skirt they could dredge up, but Sally said she would look for more. Jeans would be terribly uncomfortable while her legs were healing, though Usagi could make do with some of the sweatpants she had been given. Her shirts consisted of three tees and three tanks, in black, white, and grey.

Usagi supposed she couldn't expect much more. They were a some-what military based organization, not a department store.

She slept for nearly two days straight. She woke every now and then when she was hungry, but if she missed a meal, someone brought her food and left it for her on her empty desk. She never woke when someone knocked with her food, but then, Usagi had _always_ been a heavy sleeper. Her closest form of human contact was when she lay in bed, awake, just before dawn on her second day in her room. The shower in her shared bathroom turned on, confirming her suspicions that she had a 'suitemate.'

By the evening of her second day, she decided to venture out and see if she could track Sally down for some bobby pins. She wanted to put her hair up again. It was too odd for her to continue walking around with her hair down.

000

What Usagi had yet to see, and what the Preventers intended to keep her from seeing for as long as they could, was the mobile suit hangar built into the side of the mountain. The doors were camouflaged to keep would-be snoops from getting. There was a tunnel that connected the main building to the hangar.

"The scans are conclusive. I've run everything. She emits low levels of same energy, and her hair pins are an unknown metal."

Quatre paced back and forth behind Heero, with his arms crossed and chewing slightly on his thumb. On the monitors, Heero had up images of Usagi sitting outside with Quatre during their lunch. Some images were regular; others looked as if they could have been infrared. The second monitor showed the results of their metal test.

"She could be an agent sent from the Mars station. She could be one of their freedom fighters." Heero said, but Quatre shook his head profusely.

"No… No, I don't think she is. There's something else going on."

It was true that the Mars civilization had been seeking its own independence and right to self govern like the rest of the colonies, but their rallying involved restricting their metal exports. There had only been one instance of a violent protest, and it had been in one of the colonies.

"It would make sense why she had a metal that we haven't identified. It could be a newly discovered composition unique to Mars," Heero added. "And the outbreaks could be an extraterrestrial virus."

Quatre put his hands on his head and groaned loudly. He knew that his fellow gundam pilot certainly had a point, but he refused to believe it.

"Didn't know you were one to cave to a pretty face," Heero said.

Quatre whipped around and gave the other man a look of disbelief (and perhaps a little bit of disgust.) If Quatre hadn't known any better, he would have almost believed that Heero had cracked a joke. "Oh, please."

Heero shrugged. "Sally put a rush on the blood tests. It doesn't seem as if the woman has received any of our vaccinations. That's more than a little unusual. I'm still running her DNA through the colony systems, but there are no matches on Earth."

"Yes, fine, I agree that the situation is highly unusual. I'm not denying that. Just please, Heero, _please_ … Don't start lighting torches and gathering pitchforks for a witch-hunt just yet. If she is somehow involved with the victims of the unidentified energy, it would be so much easier if she was willingly cooperating." Quatre shook his head and shoved his hands in his pocket before heading for the electronically-locked door that would lead him back to the main building.

000

"Alright, everyone ready? We're going in."

Duo had his firearm drawn as he left the safety of the ally way and headed into the open street. He and Hilde had been with a Preventers team in upstate New York when they received alerts indicating another energy surge. It took them over an hour to get to the rural town in Nova Scotia with their suits, but they seemed to have made it just in time to catch their target in action.

Though they certainly hadn't been expecting what they found.

"Am I…. Am I seeing this right? Tell me you guys see this," Duo muttered into his com-link. Hilde slowly nodded from her spot next to him.

 _"It's not showing up on our monitors… we're just seeing a… black mass or something. Maybe something's interfering with the signal."_ One of the Preventers, going by the name McMaster, was still in his mobile suit to help provide back up for the ground unit.

"No… that's right. That's what we're seeing too," Hilde responded.

There was a crack in the ground, as if a demon from Hell had sprung forth. There were cars crashed nearby—Duo believed that someone had seen the thing in the road and swerve to avoid it. The bodies were still lying halfway out of their cars. He figured that people had rushed out to see the accident and then the thing grabbed them.

There were at least a dozen bodies strewn across the road and the sidewalk. Windows to some shops along the left side were broken, and if they moved closer to look inside, the flickering lights would show more victims. It looked like the creature had made its way into a restaurant, where it had finished with the patrons before turning on the pair of police officers who had shown up as their squads erected barriers and evacuated nearby civilians.

It was still hunched over the officers. Unlike the rest of the people, who looked like they were asleep since they had no visible wounds, the officers were nearly torn to bits. They had weapons drawn, Duo noticed.

"Duo, what do we do?" Hilde whispered as they stopped some distance away. The black mass hadn't seemed to notice them.

The gundam pilot stared wide eyed. Sure, he had dreamed about monsters and demons all his life. But seeing one…. He had never planned on what to do if the apocalypse apparently started. "I… have no goddamn idea."

Hilde looked between Duo, her unit members, and the beast devouring the police. She aimed her weapon and shot off a round, then another and another as she walked forward against Duo's protests. Apparently that was enough to get its attention. The black mass, which looked like it was made up of shadows and smoke, turned its head towards her and snarled. Even against the darkness, she could see blood seeping from its mouth and down its body. It jumped to its feet and started to make a dash for the group.

Duo hurried to get in front of Hilde, trying to block her from the beasts path, but it leapt an incredible distance, passing completely over his head, even as he unloaded a clip into its shadowy body. It landed on Hilde, pinning her to the ground. She cried out as she struggled against its grip on her, but it was far too heavy.

The beast brought its face—which was hardly anything more than a wide mouth with gleaming teeth and beady red eyes—to the woman's and growled. Some of the officer's blood dripped onto her face, causing her to squeeze her eyes shut. She thought for sure it was going to clamp its jaws down on her throat.

Instead, it moved its head downward, stopping just above her chest. It took her a moment to realize that the thing was sharply sucking in air. Her confusion turned to pain as an unseen force seemed to come out of the ground behind her back and move straight through her chest.

She felt pain—incredible pain—as if someone had ripped her beating heart from her body. She barely saw the glowing red crystal between her and the beast before her eyes turned glassy and she fell unconscious.

Duo was bewildered by the temporary bright light that seemed to erupt from Hilde's body before vanishing. Panic set in as he realized that she had stopped screaming.

All he saw was red. After he was out of bullets and he had to get the thing off of Hilde; he had to try to save her. He dove on the beasts back and wrapped his arms around its neck, pulling back with all of his might. It reared up and used its clawed hands to try to pull Duo off of it. It took a few tries, but after sinking its claws into Duo's arm, the pilot was forced to let go.

He landed on the ground with a thud and barely had time to roll onto his back before the creature was leaping at him. Duo raised his hands to try to grab its arms, sinking all of his strength and anger into his grab.

Duo gritted his teeth in pain as blood ran from the new wounds on his arms. However, that didn't stop him from shouting angrily and forcing the beast back. " _You bastard!"_

There was another bright flash of light, this one different from the one that came from Hilde's chest just moments before. This seemed to radiate from Duo's own hands. The shadowy beast gave a howl in pain as his forearms disintegrated in the light.

It stumbled backwards and looked at Duo, as if contemplating whether or not to attack again. It was rather hard to do with no clawed hands, however. Instead, it took off running down the street. It bypassed the police's attempts to barrier it before disappearing into the dark forest just beyond the town.

Duo's vision blurred, though he knew it wasn't from blood loss. The wounds were nasty but not nearly the worst he had ever had. No, his head grew heavy and he fell unconscious from complete exhaustion. The last thing he saw was his best friend lying on the grown just a few feet away from him, her eyes glassy and her body corpselike.

000

 _Author's Note: So, as I was looking through the fandom, trying to find something to read to help get me inspired to finish this chapter, I quickly realized something. There have been only a handful of stories in this fandom updated in the past twelve months. As I clicked "next page", I was shocked how quickly update-dates were suddenly in 2013. Where did this fandom go? I remember when the fandom was flooded (granted that may have been ten years ago…)_

 _I will give a shout-out to one other story in this category though which has really helped reignite my interest— **Toxic** by SmileyBasis2. That's a good one if anyone is looking for a different take on the SM/GW universe. _

_I've tried to get away from doing such frequent updates in my posting for After Colony: Revelation, but I don't mind so much with this one since the chapters are much shorter. I don't know if I will continue at this rate or not, I suppose it depends on how long my interest holds out._

 _Special thanks to **Pearness** for their review: I am glad I held off posting my earlier stories for this fandom because my writing was not nearly up to par! I love all of the political drama with GW, so I will be trying to incorporate that into this story as well. (Sometimes I wonder how I was able to keep up with the storyline as a child and it was airing for the first time. I go back and watch it, usually once every year, and it always amazes me how as much as the series is about political struggle as it is giant robots!)_

 _Thank you for reading!_

 _Ever Your Servant,_

 _A.F_


	5. Chapter 5

Cosmic Apathy

T

 _After an eternity of living out her days alone, missing her friends and family, Sailor Cosmos refuses to fight for the realms. In an attempt to remind her of her humanity, she is dropped into a needy realm and forced to survive without the Silver Crystal [01xUsagi/Sailor Cosmos]_

000

Chapter Four

000

For the first time during her stay with the Preventers, Usagi saw the place in complete chaos. There were more uniformed people than she had seen over the past four days combined. Some glanced over her as they hurried passed, but no one stopped to spare her a second thought. It seemed that something important was going on, and all hands were on deck, so to speak.

She observed for a while, leaning against the wall on the first floor, watching with mild interests and the scrambling happened. She caught Quatre's eye briefly, but he was on the phone—speaking in French, if she wasn't mistaken—and he could only apologize with his eyes for keeping her uninformed.

She heard sirens outside. They were odd to hear. The sirens she was used to sounded much different than the ones used by the emergency vehicles pulling up. She wasn't sure if it was strictly because she was in a different realm, or if it was because she was in this realm's Europe (it had taken her a little while to find the local news and determine that she was in Denmark.)

The front doors were wide open as a gurney was pushed through. Two of the EMTs guided it down the hallway while another made sure that the IV stayed connected to their patient. Usagi barely caught a glimpse of the woman being brought in, but once she did, she looked away quickly. She knew that glassy-eyed look. She remembered seeing it on Chibi-Usa as she lay out on a platform for Mistress 9.

Usagi wondered if she should tell them it was too late—if she should tell them that it would be better for them to remove the woman from life support. She would only deteriorate if she went on too long without her heart crystal.

Shortly after the gurney was moved into the elevator to be taken to the second floor hospital bay, another patient was brought in. Well, the EMTs were trying to bring him in. He was putting up a bit of a fight.

"Christ, let me go!" The man said with a distinctly American accent. Usagi momentarily thought about how similar this realm was to her own, old realm after all. "I can walk, _I can walk_! I don't need a wheelchair!"

He had long, brown hair pulled back into a braid—though it could hardly rival her own incredible hair, it still struck her as unusual to see. He wore a Preventer uniform like many of the men and women filling the building. He started to stagger in, but then lost his balance. Quatre was standing nearby and hurried to catch the man, placing his arm underneath the would-be patient's.

Unlike with the other EMTs, he didn't shrug off Quatre's help, and instead, allowed Quatre to walk him inside.

Once the man was well into the building, his eyes landed on Usagi and he didn't remove them, even as Quatre tried to lead him away. He planted his feet in the ground and refused to move any further, causing Quatre to sigh loudly.

As his violet eyes stared into her silver-blue, she raised a brow as if to say, _what?_

"You're not the Angel of Death, are you?" His tone suggested that he was completely serious, and she couldn't help but laugh out loud. He seemed to be rather taken aback by her sudden burst.

"No!" She said through her laughter, "wow, that's one thing I've never been called before." She thought perhaps Saturn would have been rather offended if she had heard someone call Usagi by such a name. Saturn took her title quite seriously, after all.

The man didn't seem offended by her response, luckily enough. "Oh. Well… good. You just… You look sorta… off?" His words were forced and he looked as if he were confused by the ones that came out of his mouth.

Usagi shrugged. "Girls with long silver hair are hard to come by, I suppose."

He furrowed his brows and shook his head. "Nah, it's not that… It's something…" He reached his hand out. Usagi couldn't tell exactly where he was reaching, but she hurried and slapped his hand away regardless. As soon as their skin touched, it was like there was a quick shock between them, causing them both to snap their hands back to themselves.

"Er, ah, do forgive him, Miss Usagi. He's not feeling very well. There was a bit of an incident some hours ago, and he hasn't quite recovered yet. This is Duo. He works closely with Heero, Trowa and I," Quatre said after eyeing the odd exchange. "If you'll excuse us, I really need to get him to Sally."

Usagi nodded slowly and gave Duo another look over. "Of course… I hope you feel better, Duo."

The men turned their backs on her to move towards the elevator, which had already returned from dropping off the other patient. One they disappeared behind the metal doors, Usagi turned and made her way to the stairs. She had seen enough people for the day. She preferred to get back to the solitude of her own room.

000

When night had fallen once more in Nova Scotia, the shadow beast that had attacked Hilde and Duo had managed to reform its body, though it had to absorb some of the power from the heart crystals it had taken. Its master would be far from pleased. It would have to collect more to take back with it if it were to avoid a punishment.

The creature started stalking back towards civilization as the sun fell below the horizon, set on finding new prey. In its determination, if failed to notice that it had become the hunted, and its hunter watched it from behind the trees.

Just as it prepared to rush off, the figured rushed the shadow creature, raising its weapon and slicing through the black mass with ease. The creature's howled died in the wind as its body dissipated, leaving nothing but the stolen heart crystals behind in its wake. The figure, clad in boots and a miniskirt, stepped carefully around the precious glowing items and started picking them up, one by one, absorbing them into herself.

It was never her intention to become involved in defending this realm. When she was awoken, she had fully planned on watching from afar and carrying out her duties when it was time. However, she couldn't very well destroy the world when Cosmos was trapped on it without her powers. So, if Pluto was able to bend the rules when it suited her, Saturn decided that she could too.

000

In the early hours of the morning, Usagi had grown bored of staring out the window at the moon above her. It wasn't the same as it had been back home. This realm's moon felt cold and distant. She could still feel some of her old power—her old Lunarian connection—coming back to over. It was an almost foreign feeling though; she had grown so used to the Cosmic energy coursing through her that the Lunarian power was more like a tingle or an inch she couldn't quite scratch. It may have been just below the surface, but it was there.

She left her room and listened to the activity around her. Even for being so late, it was obvious that there were more people at the Preventers' base than there was before. She could hear snoring coming from one of the dormitories a bit from hers. A few had their televisions on and she could hear terrible, annoying infomercials echoing through the hallways.

Usagi sighed and shut her door behind her. She wasn't exactly sure what she wanted to do. She didn't know if she wanted to try to talk with someone, or just watch from the sidelines. She did know that she was growing antsy just sitting around and doing nothing with all of the activity going on around her.

Maybe that was part of what had caused her to grow so apathetic in the first place. Being stuck in her Cosmic Castle, with no one but the occasional Pluto to keep her company, she forgot what it was like to be part of something. Now, with so much activity going on about her, she felt useless. And she didn't care for it too much.

Usagi went down just one floor, figuring she could acquaint herself with the crowd gradually. There were a few doors open to offices that had previously been shut and locked, so she assumed that some of the regular inhabitants had returned to the base from who knows where else the Preventers operated.

Quatre's office was one of the ones with an open door. She supposed that she could go speak with him. He was at least pleasant with her, unlike Trowa, who barely spoke with her, and Heero, who spent most of his time glaring at her. She let out a sigh (one that was perhaps filled with a little bit of disappointment) when she found that the office was empty. The lights were on, but he was nowhere to be found.

She was sure it was a faux pas to snoop around the office, but the door was wide open. If he didn't want people in it, he should have shut and locked it. Usagi stopped and stared at the desertscape, tilting her head to the side. Yes, it was a pretty picture. Unfortunately, that was about all she could get from it. She had never exactly been one to appreciate or understand the fine arts on a deeper level.

There were books out on the coffee table, a few in Arabic, she suspected. He had explained to her his family's origin and business, though she found it hard to believe that someone like him could have ever survived in the desert. There were very few times she had ever ended up in a desert land, and she hated every minute of it.

To the left of Quatre's desk was a bookshelf and another small portrait. She couldn't help herself—she peeked behind the portrait to see if there was some sort of hidden safe. It seemed like the sort of thing that would fit in this kind of office. Alas, there was no secret area. Just more wall. There were more books and odd trinkets on the shelves, all perfectly clean. She wondered if Quatre had someone who came in and dusted his office for him. She hadn't seen any sort of cleaning crew up until this point, at least.

There was a violin case on the shelf just about waist level with her. She knew it was wrong to start opening things, but she clicked the latches anyhow and carefully ran her fingers over the finely carved wood and thin strings.

"Do you play, Miss Usagi?" Quatre's voice came from the doorway, startling her from her thoughts. She gasped and placed a hand on her chest.

"Oh… No, I don't. I had a friend once who tried to teach me. She was one of the best in the country," Usagi said and carefully closed the case once more. "I shouldn't have been snooping."

Quatre smiled at her and shrugged. "It's no problem… Your friend, would have I have heard of her?"

Usagi's gaze fell and she shook her head. "I doubt it… it was a very long time ago."

The Preventer nodded thoughtfully and seemed content to leave it at that. Perhaps that was why Usagi didn't particularly mind speaking with him. He didn't try to dig too much into the things she said, even if he may have found them odd. "I'm glad you're here. Sally meant to give these to you today, but she's been so busy that she didn't have a chance to track you down."

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small pack of hair ties and bobbypins. Usagi couldn't help but smiling back as she accepted from him. It was certainly something that she had been wanting to get her hands on.

"Thank you. It may seem silly, but there are very particularly ways to manage hair this long," she said and immediately started opening the package.

"You could cut it?" Quatre offered with a shrugged.

Usagi chuckled, "it's an old tradition." She started to look around for a mirror in the office, but she had no lucky. For as well kept as he was, apparently Quatre didn't feel the need to have one.

"The rest rooms are towards the middle of the hallway, if that helps."

She gave a brief nod before hurrying out, the bobbypin package between her teeth and her hands already working on winding half of her hair into buns. She was just about done with her first one by the time she reached the restroom. She held her bun in place with one hand and wiggled two pins out before placing them and returning for more.

It was always harder doing the second bun, since she had to makes sure they were even. Because she didn't have a spare set of hands to help her, she didn't bother with forming the meticulous heart shapes. Instead, she returned to her _ondangos_. They were much easier to manage. She couldn't remember the last time she had done her hair in such a way. Perhaps it was because she was older and wiser, but she felt like she looked like her mother for the first time. It was rather unnerving.

As she made her way down floor by floor, Usagi thought that perhaps she would find sally and thank her for the pins. She wasn't exactly surprised when she found the medical wing nearly empty. It was just after midnight and most people were in bed. The EMTs who weren't Preventers had probably returned home, leaving just the regular medical staff in charge of the two patients.

She knew she should have turned around and kept going, but seeing the only nurse on duty leave the large medical room and head into one of the offices, Usagi decided to get a closer look at the woman who was brought in. The room was very quiet, save the beeping from one of the machines monitoring the patient's vitals. She was on one of the beds closest to the door, with Duo in the next bed over, sleeping.

Usagi pitied the woman. She remembered the excruciating pain of losing her heart crystal, and how cold and empty she had felt without it. Usagi had only gone a short time without it, however, and she couldn't imagine what it would have been like to go almost a full day as an empty shell.

She reached her hand out and gently touched the patients hand. She jumped as the woman's arm jerked and unconsciously latched onto Usagi's. She felt, for a moment, that some of the energy she had built up over the past few days was being sucked from her.

"I'm sorry," Usagi said with a sigh, "I can't help you. I don't have the power anymore." She wiggled her hand free and stepped away so that the woman couldn't grab her again.

"That's pathetic," said a woman's voice from behind her, "you know you could feed her energy to help sustain her, and you won't do it."

Usagi tensed but did not turn around. She knew the voice well enough, though she hadn't heard it for quite a while and it now seemed more mature. The sound of Saturn's glaive hitting off of the tile floor echoed in the air, sending a shiver down Usagi's spine.

"What's the point? No matter how much energy I give her, it wouldn't mean anything without her heart crystal. She'll eventually rot away from the inside out."

"Well, lucky for her then, some of us are still willing fight." The Sailor Senshi circled the bed, holding a glowing heart crystal in her free hand. She stood at the foot of the bed and gently urged the crystal to move back to into its rightful body.

"You shouldn't be here, Saturn," Usagi said, watching as the woman's color started to return to her. It would probably take a few hours for her to normalize, but she would be okay with a few days bed rest.

The dark haired woman snorted, "and you should be fighting Pharaoh 19, not wallowing in self pity. I wonder… if the snatchers went after you, would your heart crystal still shine so brightly? I remember when you were able to use it to save me. Now you can barely save yourself."

Usagi rolled her eyes and frowned at Saturn. "You aren't to speak to me that way."

Saturn laughed coolly and looked away from Duo, who was laying still and trying to pretend to be asleep (he didn't fool the Bringer of Silence.) She sliced her glaive downwards in the air, wearing open the border between space and time. "I'll speak to you as my queen when you start acting like her."

She disappeared as quickly as she appeared, leaving Usagi alone in the darkness. She sighed and muttered to herself before turning and leaving the medical room to return to her seclusion.

When he was sure that both women were gone, Duo rolled over and looked around, wide eyed. He couldn't be sure if he was going crazy or if the drugs were just hitting him _that_ hard. If he brought it up to his friends, he was sure they would make him get a scan, just to make sure he didn't have brain damage.

With one last look at Hilde, who seemed to be sleeping peacefully, he shook any of the strange ideas from his head and lay back down.

000

 _Author's Notes: Saturn is likely the only other senshi to make an appearance. I haven't decided if Pluto will join in on the fight or not. Saturn has a deeper connection to the Tao Nebula and the Pharaohs than the others, which is why it makes sense for her to want to get involved. Additionally, since she's only alive for short periods, it would be safe to say that she would be one of the last senshi left. No one ever knows when she'll show up, so it basically comes down to just her and Pluto in the end._

 _I haven't decided the best way to introduce Wufei yet. I'm thinking I'm going to do something that's going to make him have a continuously guilt conscious. Poor Wufei. He's my favorite character, so that means he obviously has to suffer._

 _If you're someone giving After Colony: Revelation a shot, I should warn you—it's been in the works for almost 8 years now. The earlier chapters are not as well written as the later ones, I apologize. I wrote it so long ago then returned to it. I couldn't fix it all without rewriting everything, which I didn't really feel like. I also promise that the story doesn't focus on the OCs!_

 ** _Flu:_** _I've come to terms with the fact that there aren't as many fans in the category, and that I can't expect too much feedback. But that's okay. I want to write an entertaining story so that even if someone looks back in a year, maybe they'll find mine! Thank you for alerting me to the formatting problem as well. I have no idea what the heck happened there! I was able to fix it fast because of you!_

 ** _Pat:_** _ah, my dear Pat! It's very nice of you to give this story a shot, even if you haven't seen SM in ages! All you basically need to know is that Sailor Cosmos is kinda the eventual "final form" of Sailor Moon, and that at that point, she's the guardian of all of the realms but basically alone. She appeared in the unaired Season 5 (for the U.S. at least.) Hope you'll like it!_

 _Thank you everyone for reading!_

 _Ever Your Servant,_

 _A.F_


	6. Chapter 6

Cosmic Apathy

T

 _After an eternity of living out her days alone, missing her friends and family, Sailor Cosmos refuses to fight for the realms. In an attempt to remind her of her humanity, she is dropped into a needy realm and forced to survive without the Silver Crystal [01xUsagi/Sailor Cosmos]_

000

Chapter Five

000

"It's remarkable," Sally said, her voice and wide eyes conveying her disbelief, "I cannot imagine how it happened, but it did. Her vitals are back up, her brainwaves are active again… It's like her body just decided to start working again."

The doctor stood over Hilde's bed while Trowa and Quatre were looking through the new paperwork briefing them on their fellow Preventer's condition. They honestly didn't need the medical jargon to tell them that things were looking up. Hilde hardly looked like the half dead patient they had seen just the day prior. Instead, she just looked like she needed a lot of rest.

Quatre set the clipboard back in its slot at the foot of the bed. "Well, I suppose that's good news," he said with a raised brow. "What do you think Duo? You look… puzzled."

And indeed he did. The braided pilot was sitting up in his own bed, looking much more like his normal self, with his arms crossed over his chest and brows furrowed in deep thought. He shrugged and looked over at them—though it was more like 'towards them' since his gaze seemed to show that he was still in some far off place in his mind. "It's just weird."

"Care to elaborate on that?" Trowa asked after Duo went a few more moments just staring instead of speaking.

Duo shook his head, seemingly trying to focus his thoughts once more. "Yeah… Okay. You're going to think I'm not—more so than you probably usually do, at least—but I swear that the girl with the hair? What's her name? Usagi? I swear she was in here last night and that she was talking with another woman. I mean, I'm pretty sure I was awake, but I could have made that up. I was pretty out of whack and all."

"Well, that is interesting," Quatre said as his eyes flickered over to Trowa. The other man seemed to understand and turned, heading for the door. "It's something we'll look into, don't worry. For now, maybe get up and walk around, see how you're feeling, Duo."

"I agree. Physically, everything says you should be fine. I can't find a reason for your exhaustion, but maybe trying some normal activities will help you feel better. Take a shower, eat a good meal. Don't do anything strenuous, but don't spend the day in bed. I'll do a check up on you a little bit later, okay?" Sally said with a smile.

Duo sighed and waved her off. "Yeah, yeah, whatever you say. I _am_ pretty damned hungry." He waited a few moments before sliding to one side of the hospital bed and hoping off. His knees popped and he groaned loudly. Being a gundam pilot, he had put his body through hell for most of his life. Compared to now, however, he couldn't think of a time he felt so…. Old.

After he refused Quatre's help, the blonde pilot said goodbye and immediately took the stairs outside of the room to head to the third floor. When he entered the command room, he saw that Trowa was already at his station pulling up the security footage from the prior night. Quatre also saw that there was another station up and running, but left idle. If he had to guess, he would have said that Trowa sent anyone else in the room away upon arrival.

"I just found her leaving your office," Trowa said as Quatre pulled up a seat next to him. "She heads into the nearby restroom for a few minutes…"

He sped up the playback feature and watched as Usagi exited and looked around the hallway. She milled about for a bit, looking at the artwork before stepping onto the elevator. Trowa immediately switched to the second floor cameras to see her exiting the elevator and heading towards the medical wing.

"Looks like she was trying to find Sally," Quatre said as Usagi peered into Sally's office. A nurse gave her a nod and headed into one of the other offices, leaving Usagi alone in the hallway. Then, as Duo said, she walked into the hospital bay.

Unfortunately, the footage in that room only showed Usagi's back, and there was no audio. They slowed the speed down its regular playback and carefully watched the scene unfold.

"Hilde just grabbed her hand, though her stats didn't seem to change. That's a bit odd. Sally said she had been unresponsive," Quatre murmured, though it was more to himself than to Trowa.

There was a sudden distortion on the edge of the screen. Trowa tried to adjust the controls to clear up the image, but it didn't help. He tried for a few moments before his fellow pilot put a hand on his arm and shook his head. Trowa shrugged and let the footage play on.

The distortion was not from some sort of digital defect. It more seemed that the cameras simply couldn't film whatever was appearing before them. It took a bit of staring and watching in slow motion to realize that they seemed to be seeing a figure of a person.

"If Duo were seeing this, he'd surely say it as a ghost," Quatre said, squinting to try to see better (it didn't help.)

"But he isn't here, and neither of us would say that," Trowa replied.

"Right… of course not."

They continued watching as a ball of white light appeared from the distorted figure and moved towards Hilde. The light seemed to disappear in a brief flash. Then they noticed that it seemed Usagi was speaking with the figure. Perhaps it was the woman Duo had mentioned?

"We're going to have a problem if Heero sees this," Trowa said. Quatre nodded somewhat reluctantly because he was, of course, correct. However, maybe it was time to let Heero have his chance to question their mysterious guest.

000

"I've got a lock on the target," Wufei said over his communication line. Altron was flying over a small set of trees as it forced its prey to keep moving. "As soon as it hits the field, I'm taking it out."

There had been another energy surge, following an attack on civilians, close to his post. He had been stationed in the East Asia Preventers' Base for some months after being appointed Commander. Though he preferred to head out and work on his own, he certainly didn't mind having control of his own region. He may have reported back to Quatre, who was the primary 'face' of the Preventers, but he hardly saw the other pilot as his superior.

The black mass he had been pursuing finally ran from the woods and tried to make a break across the field, heading towards a mountain side. If it managed to reach the rocky area, Wufei knew he would have a much harder time trying to pin the creature down since he would lose his lock-on.

Wufei swung his thermal trident around (he would have preferred to use one of his Dragon Claws, but he knew he would potentially start a forest fire if he lit the field ablaze,) and managed to bring one of his prongs down on the creature. Though some of his men thought it was best to capture whatever it was that was attacking people and leaving them in a comatose state, Wufei preferred to just wipe his opponent out.

Which he certainly did. The laser like prong sliced right through the black mass and destroyed it on contact. However there was a sudden surge of energy which caused Wufei to jet backwards, just so he could catch the entire surge on camera. His infra-red reader did catch the way the energy seemed to erupt from the creature as it was destroyed, and his regular camera caught the bright flash that came with it. When the surge died down, there was a crater left in the beast's wake, with the shape of it burned into the ground.

Wufei circled the cater a few times, trying to film a good view of the shape. However, he ended deciding to leave the area for the forensics team. He couldn't particularly explain why, but he had a feeling sitting deep within his stomach, and it was far from a good one.

000

After her late night, and her somewhat mentally trying encounter with Saturn, Usagi was quite content to sleep in. In some ways, being on 'Earth'—or some version of it—with no responsibilities was nice. It would have been nicer if she was allowed to leave the house. She had hardly even seen the sun, after all, except for when she was escorted to the balconies for brief periods.

And so far, people had been nice enough, though with a few exceptions. She was almost able to relax.

Of course, that was before Heero and Trowa burst into her room and grabbed her before she had a chance to even wake up. Years of Youma battling kicked in, and she immediately started to fight against her captors. She managed to wretch her arm free from Trowa's grasp and quickly elbowed him in the gut. To her dismay, he hardly seemed winded since he had braced himself for her resistance.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Usagi shouted as he grabbed hold of her once again. "I didn't do anything!"

"If you have nothing to hide, you'll walk with us quietly," Heero said in an annoyingly even tone. It bothered her how stoic he could be, even when barging into a woman's room and grabbing her while she slept.

Usagi struggled for a few more moments, but then stopped. She couldn't hold her own against them, at least not now. She may have had her well trained moves, but she wasn't used to having such a weak body. In her Cosmos form, she had been much stronger even in hand to hand combat. "Fine. You could have started with that, you know. Can I at least put some pants on before you parade me around the building?"

Her shirt may have been long enough to double and a nightgown, but she hardly wanted to go walking about so many soldiers (most of whom were men) with no bra or pants.

The two Preventers looked at one another from above Usagi's head then nodded and released her, but quickly moved to block the exit and the lamp—in case she decided to run or go for the nearest swingable object. Usagi did neither, and instead just grabbed her pair of army green sweatpants from the floor to put on.

"There, see? I'm decent enough to walk around, and I'm doing it without a fight. What is with you and being so forceful, I mean _really_. I've been here for over a week now and I haven't done anything—"

"I said _quietly_ ," Heero stated, cutting Usagi off. She scowled at him and sneered, silently mouthing his words in a mocking sort of way.

When Trowa opened the door and stepped out to lead the way, Usagi did not immediately follow. Heero then put his hand on her back and pushed her forward, keeping it there as the two of them started a march after Trowa. As they walked, Usagi made it a point to cross her arms and hold her head up high. She would not let the other Preventers see her as some sort of guilty, common criminal.

If they had thought she was stubborn _before_ , oh she would be sure to show them just how strong willed she really was. She may have complied with them in walking out silently on her own, but she had years of practice verbally sparring with Mars. If they wanted answers from her, they would be on her own terms—and most likely not until she grew tired of playing their games.

000

 _Author's Notes: this chapter was a bit shorter than the past two, I think. However, my weekend was terribly busy and this had to go on the backburner. I could have continued it, but I decided that I would prefer to have Heero's interrogation start the next chapter instead._

 _I am glad to see that despite a rather inactive fandom, there are people still here! I have to say, I do not think I have ever had a story where the hits are so… consistent! I mean to say, it seems that most readers are coming back to each chapter, rather than many reading chapters one and two, then not coming back for the rest. I'm overjoyed to see returning readers!_

 _I would like to extend a special thanks to_ _ **Infinite, Flu**_ _, and_ _ **Tynetyne**_ _for their kind reviews! Additionally…._

 ** _Ladybug_** _: I am so glad you are enjoying the story! Saturn has always been my favorite scout, and the Death Busters was my favorite arch. It only seemed natural for me to pull her into this story since it is involving the Tao nebula. Additionally, Saturn was the one scout who seemed to take her legacy duties more deeply than her duties to Serenity (even Pluto was willing to make exceptions when it came to helping Serenity.) So, I think Saturn is the most likely to whip Usagi back into shape disregarding her feelings. I have also considered a pilot as a romantic interest for Saturn, but I can't decide which. I have two possibilities and one is rather unconventional…_

 ** _Guest:_** _I think I am in the exact same position. I had been somewhat out of the fandom (as far as reading is concerned) for some time. I could not believe how few of the stories were still floating around there. Where did they all go?! They've just been… deleted? There were so many good ones, and I hate that they've gone away… Well, I'm glad you're willing to jump back into this fandom a bit, and I hope I can maintain your interest!_

 _Aiming for another quick update in a day or so, so thank you all for keeping me motivated!_

 _Ever Your Servant,_

 _A.F_


	7. Chapter 7

Cosmic Apathy

T

 _After an eternity of living out her days alone, missing her friends and family, Sailor Cosmos refuses to fight for the realms. In an attempt to remind her of her humanity, she is dropped into a needy realm and forced to survive without the Silver Crystal [01xUsagi/Sailor Cosmos]_

000

Chapter Six

000

Usagi sat with her legs crossed, bouncing her right foot and occasionally tapping it off of one of the table legs. Heero didn't show it, but she could tell it was annoying him. But then, the way she casually stared at him, her head tilted to the side with her brow raised and lips pursed certainly probably helped as well.

She was back in the interrogation room she had been held in after her initial escape attempt. The room was still freezing, but at least this time she wasn't cuffed and she was wearing more than a wet hospital gown. Heero sat her down and then sat across from her, staring at her unwaveringly.

Of course, she supposed that this was supposed to be some sort of intimidation tactic. However, after staring down Chaos for a battle for the universe so many centuries ago, one man with a gun simply didn't cut it.

Besides, she wasn't exactly sure what he _wanted_ from her. He had actually asked her any questions. Was he expecting her to just open up? Well if that was the case…

"My favorite color is white. It used to be pink. I enjoyed Home Econ in High School, but always hated English and Math. I have a sweet tooth, cookies, cake, ice cream… you name it, I love it. My least favorite food is carrots. It's not that they taste bad, I don't like their texture. My favorite past time is sleeping and I hate physical activity. I mean, I'll do it, but I won't like it. I don't get enjoyment out of it like other people," Usagi said, all very quickly in an even tone and with no pauses between sentences. Then she sighed.

Heero stared at her for a bit longer before reaching into his pocket and withdrawing a small remote. He pointed it to a space just above the two way mirror which caused a small light to click on. Soon, there was an image projected on the wall to Usagi's left.

It was her, standing next to Hilde's bed, with… something… standing next to her.

 _Damn it, Saturn!_

The problem with realms like this one was that they were so technologically advanced that there was almost no way to hide. They simply weren't meant to house magic, in one form or another. Honestly, that was part of the reason she was willing enough to let this realm be. They would eventually track down the heart snatchers on their own, and they had the weaponry to destroy them, even if weren't necessarily 'clean.' But if she were to interfere, they probably would have caught onto her pretty quickly—hell, she hadn't even transformed and they still managed to catch Usagi.

Usagi looked at the image with a thoughtful _'huh,'_ and said, "is ghost hunting a past time of yours? Your building may be haunted."

"Hn." Heero didn't seem particularly amused by her comment, and narrowed his eyes at her. Usagi leaned forward, placed her arm upright on the table and put her head in her hands.

"I don't speak 'hum' language, so you'll have to clarify," she said airly, staring him right back in his cold blue eyes.

He seemed to contemplate whether he was going to continue to keep up his staring game before he ultimately spoke. "What were you doing in the medical bay at that hour and unaccompanied?"

"No one told me I needed a chaperone to walk around the building. I was bored. Quatre gave me hair pins and I went to go thank Sally since I asked her for them. I couldn't find her. Having nothing else to do, I went to check out the patients. They're the most interesting thing to happen since I got here," Usagi said and rolled her eyes.

"Interesting?" Heero asked sharply.

"Yeah. Interesting," Usagi said dryly, "what else do I have to do here? I can't even go outside. So seeing the two people who caused a truck load of people to just suddenly up and come here basically overnight seemed _interesting_. It's not like I did anything to them."

That was the truth at least, _she_ really didn't do anything. That was all on Saturn.

"Stop playing games," Heero demanded, his sudden tone catching Usagi off guard. He was typically rather flat when he spoke, but now it seemed like there was anger—which as certainly more terrifying. "Who are you, what are you doing here, and what is your connection to these global attacks?" He clicked the remote again, this time shuffling through a series of rather graphic images.

Usagi initially tried to focus on her interrogator, but she couldn't help but look at the projected images. Her face drained of what little color her pale skin had as she saw the mass amounts of people appearing dead as they lay in streets, restaurants, hospitals, schools…

She hadn't known how bad it was. When the Youma attacked before, when the heart snatchers plagued her city, they were focused on one area. Sure, she expected some casualties at her inaction, but she thought that this realm would have been destroyed by now. She had seen, after all, the destruction the people caused one another. She had seen the giant robots—the mobile suits—attacking one another, destroying cities. She had seen as one group decided that they would try to wipe out most of the life on earth by dropping part of an enormous battleship on the planet.

But those weren't her fault. No matter how this realm went about destroying itself, that wasn't her fault. However, keeping Pharaoh 19 and the Tao Nebula from invading… that _was_ her responsibilities. The people suffering and dying in masses now, those _were_ her fault.

Heero continued scrolling through the numerous images, showing more of the people affected as well as the creatures doing the attacking. There weren't many photos, and most came from either the attack on Duo or from another, aerial source.

"My name is Usagi," she said, though her voice sounded distant as she stared at the images, "I'm here because I was being a fool, and I should have tried to stop all of this before it happened."

As she finished speaking, Heero's arm shot out and pulled her a bit over the table, forcing her to look at him. She opened her mouth to object but found that he was staring at her intently—or, more specifically, staring into her eyes. For the first time, she noticed that his own eyes were not as cold as she had first seen. Instead, they seemed to be almost… appraising. She supposed, perhaps, he was trying to determine whether or not she was telling the truth.

The door to the interrogation room opened quickly, causing Heero to release her arm. She backed away quickly, putting space between herself and the man. His attention was no longer on her, however, it was on Quatre who was looking somewhat bewildered.

"Forgive my interruption," he said, though he seemed to avoid Usagi's gaze, "but I've just received a very odd request of Wufei. He's on the communication line, I thought perhaps you would like to speak with him yourself…"

Heero did not respond, but he did promptly stand and exit the room, pulling the door shut behind him. Usagi heard the door lock as she dropped back into her seat. The projector was still running, and he had left the remote on the table, much to her own dismay.

000

By the time Saturn was able to locate the most recent Youma, it had already been destroyed. She stood above the crater, looking down at the mere shadow remnant burned into rock below. There were floodlights illuminating the area, but there was no one in sight. The crew that had been working the area had mostly packed up for the night. There were only a few left, camping out in tents, but most were relying on their parameter detection system to pick up any unwanted visitors.

It hadn't been hard for Saturn to bypass the set up—disappearing and reappearing through a tear in space.

"You poor things," she whispered and raised her hand, focusing her energy on the place the Youma had exploded. Some of the heart crystals it had absorbed managed to hide in the ground and avoid being damaged, or, well, avoided _most_ damage. Some had certainly lost their shine. However, she knew for a fact that most of the crystals had been destroyed. That was what happened when someone without the senshi abilities tried to destroy a Youma. They destroyed everything, and not just the darkness.

The few crystals remaining materialized from the darkness and floated up towards Saturn, allowing her to take them in until she could find their owners.

"Drop the weapon," came a voice from behind the woman.

"That would be a very bad idea," she replied calmly. "Awful things happen when the blade touches the ground." Nonetheless, she raised her free hand and held her glaive away from her body, showing that she was not preparing for an attack.

"If that is a threat, it is a very poor one," the man said as she turned to face him. She recognized him from her surveillance of the scene earlier. He was the head of the team working the area. He was also the one who destroyed the monster and so many innocent heart crystals.

Saturn's mouth twitched upwards, just slightly. "It's no threat. It's a warning. Regardless, I mean you no harm."

As he continued to watch her for a few moments, Saturn could see that his hand was tensing, as if he were preparing to pull the trigger. "I do not have any desire to shoot a woman, but you are leaving me no choice!"

In the moment that he shot off a round, Saturn brought her glaive back in front of her and put up her shield. The light from the flood light reflected off her 'force field' and veins of energy spider-webbed out momentarily where the bullet stuck it. When the first one failed to hit, her attacker shot off another, then another and another, trying to penetrate her protective sphere.

"So you're a coward who would rather hide behind some sort of shield than fight," he snapped, tossing his now empty gun to the side. "It figures. What else is to be expected from a _woman_."

Saturn's brow raised and her eyes narrowed. "There is no shame in protecting myself when someone points a gun at me. Besides, don't let the mini-skirt fool you. I'm quite a proficient fighter."

The man seemed to let out a sort of snort of disbelief. She could hardly be offended though, as no one ever seemed to take the senshi outfits seriously. In fact, Saturn felt rather confident that if she were a onlooker, she wouldn't take herself seriously either.

"Fine then. Abandon your weapon, leave your shield, and come fight me."

"Why should I? What benefit would it serve me to fight you? I could disappear in moments and there is nothing you could do to stop me. Even if I were to agree, and you somehow miraculously won, what then? Would you try again to kill me? No. We must agree on terms." Saturn asked, still maintaining her sphere. She could have dropped it, but she half expected him to run at her the moment it was down.

The man scowled and paced—no, _stalked_ back and forth, staring her down. It seemed she had struck a chord with him. "Though I will not feel particularly good about defeating some silly-skirted woman, there have been far too many innocent people struck down by whatever creature _that_ was," he said and nodded to the crater behind her, "and I need answers. If you are here, then you surely know something."

"Then that is our agreement. Whoever wins is privy to the information of the other—and that _includes_ the information held by your organization. It shouldn't be a problem, if you're so confident that you can beat me," Saturn said with a shrug, slowly lowering her glaive and weakening the barrier around her.

"Fine. I am Wufei, and I challenge you to one on one, unarmed combat."

She let the energy around her fade and dissipate before she raised her arm and thrust it outwards, her glaive vanishing into thin air. If her attacker, Wufei, felt any sort of shock at the motion, he seemed to hide it well.

"I, Sailor Saturn, Senshi of Death and Rebirth, accept your challenge," she replied with a small smile and stepped away from the crater and the flood lights, further into the darkness around her challenger. The poor human had no idea what he was getting himself into.

000

 _Author's Note: So, in case I haven't said it before (or really, in case I haven't said it 'enough',) I am actually a Wufei fan girl. If you've read any of After Colony: Revelation or His Daughter Is Not Weak, then you know this. So, before anyone goes on a rant about Wufei's classification about Saturn, I tried to make it clear that it's less about her being a woman over all, and more about the fact that she looks absolutely ridiculous for a warrior. Because it's true. The senshi look beautiful but hardly combat ready. So that's more where he's coming from here, rather than "no-y-chromosome-means-automatically-weak."_

 _Something you may notice is the POV/timeline transitions. I'm trying to primarily write from the senshi POV, which is why Wufei was not named until he introduced himself. Additionally, you'll see that some sections are not always written in chronological order… well, you'll understand in the next chapter!_

 _Thanks to my lovely reviewer **Flu** , who certainly helped me make up my mind with what I was going to do with Saturn. I thought that most people only wanted to see Hotaru/Duo, since that's basically all I've ever seen, but I'm glad that it's okay to mix it up!_

 _Thank you everyone for reading!_

 _Ever Your Servant_

 _A.F_


	8. Chapter 8

Cosmic Apathy

T

 _After an eternity of living out her days alone, missing her friends and family, Sailor Cosmos refuses to fight for the realms. In an attempt to remind her of her humanity, she is dropped into a needy realm and forced to survive without the Silver Crystal [01xUsagi/Sailor Cosmos; 05xHotaru/Sailor Saturn]_

000

Chapter Seven

000

It was clear to Saturn that her opponent was highly trained, though she hardly expected anything less. A person who would willingly push for unarmed combat wouldn't do so without thinking they could win—even if that person did believe they were fighting a lesser opponent. Well, she as quick to prove that he shouldn't have taken her so lightly.

She had spent year upon years sparring with both Haruka and Makoto. When you have a few life spans to learn, it's rather safe to say you're a master. It helped that when she swung around and brought her arm down towards her opponent's neck, Saturn's strength proved to be inhuman. Wufei caught her arm before she could land the blow, but had to use both of his to completely stop her movement.

Saturn used his force to swivel around and bring her leg up, swinging it upright to aim for his head. She hoped that if she could keep him on the defense, she could quickly wear him down and make him concede.

He ducked down and slid to the side. Once her back was slightly turn lunged forward, sliding his arms beneath hers and using his momentum to toss her over his back and to the ground. For a moment, Wufei succeeded in pinning her to the ground, but as soon as she had her right arm loose, she struck him with her open palm on his chest. The force was enough to push him back enough for her to get her left arm free.

Wufei raised his forearm to try to strike out, but she jerked it to the side and rolled. He was left in momentary shock when he realized that she had managed to reverse their position. By look he was no longer trying to mask, Saturn that that it was beyond him how she, who was shorter and certainly far more petite than he, had so much power in her. He was forced to concede when she leaned into her position, using her arm to start to cut off his air.

If it had been a fight to the death, Saturn would have won. In fact, if it had been her desire, she still could have killed him with her bare hands. That was not their agreement, however, and she released him. "The match is mine."

She did have to admit to herself that she was impressed by his skill. The senshi were, in most ways, goddesses after all. Not many people could have gone hand to hand with the Bringer of Silence and held his own.

Saturn swung herself over and stood, brushing off the dirt that had gathered on her uniform. Parts of the white were smudged and there were a few tears on the edge. She wasn't too concerned—as soon as she de-transformed, the uniform would repair itself. She turned and offered out her hand to her opponent, who was still on the ground, propping himself up on his forearms. He was staring at her intently, perhaps trying to determine whether or not she somehow cheated.

"Well? Are you going to stay down there all night, or are you going to honor our agreement?" She asked, thrusting her hand out once more.

Wufei did not accept her hand. He stood on his own and brushed the bit of dirt of rock that had stuck to his arms, but he didn't both with the rest of his clothes. She could tell, by the bit of light reflecting off of his dark eyes, that he was livid.

"Listen—you're trying to stop the heart snatches, I'm trying to stop the heart snatchers. I find myself lacking aide in all of this. Let's help each other while it suits us, and then we can part ways. I could have killed you and disappeared, and no one would have even known I was here, but I didn't. I am taking a risk in trusting that perhaps you would have done the same," Saturn said with a sigh, clasping her hands in front of her. "You are the commander here, aren't you? You have the authority to… make me a consultant of sorts."

"My authority extends to this region only. I must get permission from the main base, which I cannot do until tomorrow," Wufei replied, his voice low and cautious.

Saturn nodded. "Yes, I suppose that makes sense. Your organization has been working world wide, and your main base would have more information on the matter. I will return tomorrow. However, I warn you now, if there is a surprise attack waiting for me, you will not like the results."

"I am more honorable than that," Wufei practically spat, "I would not resort to such tactics to defeat an opponent. So long as you do not pose a threat to my men, they will let you pass."

"Good. Then I will see you tomorrow. Good night," Saturn replied and outstretched her arm, calling her glaive back to her. When it appeared, she sliced a hole in Space-Time and stepped through it, disappearing from the area. She was sure that, even if she didn't turn around to see it, his look was one of bewilderment.

Saturn had given up trying to pass for human a long time ago. Hell, even when she was reborn as a human, she barely managed. Unlike the other senshi, the ones who had long since died out and stopped being reborn, it did not serve her to try to blend in. Perhaps, in a world where she was the only active senshi, it was perfectly acceptable to embrace her status.

000

Heero left the interrogation room and entered into a rather small office. While the other Preventers may have preferred to have workspace on the third floor together, he was quite content to be placed in the very corner of the basement, far from anyone else (at least, when he wasn't working in the mobile suit hangar.) When he saw Trowa sitting at his desk, he had to fight to keep his brow from twitching.

Sometimes, he had to wonder what the point of using a computer password was when Trowa had no problem bypassing it.

"What happened?" Heero asked as he sat down in one of the rolling chairs and slid up to the desk. He flicked his eyes over in annoyance at Trowa, who seemed to be intently staring at one of the ceiling tiles.

 _"Why is it that you immediately assume something must have happened for me to contact the main base?"_ Wufei asked, crossing his arms with a huff.

"Did something happen?"

 _"… Yes."_ Wufei leaned forward towards his monitor and squeezed the bridge of his nose. Heero noticed that even through their video communication line, the other Preventer looked tired. Wufei usually never looked tired unless he was particularly distraught. _"I find myself obligated to honor an agreement that I don't particularly want to honor."_

"So don't," Heero replied flatly. He only caused Wufei to groan in frustration.

 _"You know I am not one to go back on my word."_

As he stared at the other Preventer contacting him from a few countries away, Heero reluctantly sat back and reclined in his chair. He had a feeling he wasn't going to like whatever it was that Wufei had to say. After all, Wufei was typically a straight forward sort of person and if he was stalling, then it was a legitimate problem. "I was in the middle of something. I would appreciate it if you would get to the point."

 _"We were infiltrated last night. A woman… passed through… our parameter undetected. She claims to have information regarding the attacks, and she wants to work as a… consultant."_ Wufei seemed to speak through a clenched jaw, trying to speak in the plainest terms possible. However, for as plain as it were, Heero thought that he was being particularly vague.

"Did you detain her?"

 _"I was unable to do so. I was… out matched."_

Heero raised his brow. "Outmatched?"

 _"Yes,"_ Wufei replied raising his head as if he were content with the idea (Heero was sure it was eating him alive.) _"However, I do not think you would believe me without meeting her for yourself. I am requesting permission to return to the main base with… the consultant."_

There were very few individuals who could best Wufei in a physical challenge—which is what Heero was gathering happened from the details he was _not_ given. "Does this 'consultant' have a name?"

 _"She called herself Saturn, though my gut tells me that's more of a title than a name. It could be possible that she's part of an organization—even 'the' organization—involved in the global attacks. She indicated that she already knows a great deal more than us_ ," Wufei replied.

So, Heero had one woman who he was _sure_ was involved but who was desperately trying to play clueless, and now another woman who seemed to be going out of her way to convince Wufei that she was involved.

"Fine. Permission granted. Update us on your ETA."

The two Preventers disconnected their lines and Heero locked his computer once more, shooting an icy look over to Trowa— who had now decided it was a good time to start checking the supplies drawers and taking inventory.

Just as Heero was about to return to the interrogation room, Quatre exited the stairwell he had stepped into to take a phone call. His brows were furrowed and he chewed his lips slightly.

"I just got a phone call from Noin," Quatre said, looking at his phone as if it were going to tell him what to say, "they… they caught one of the creatures."

Heero stiffened, his hand still on the interrogation room door. He already knew what Quatre was going to say before he actually said it.

"It was hiding in a shop's store room. When it got loose, it attacked and got out into the street—they were just starting opening ceremonies for the annual heritage festival. They got it back into the store room, and they're working on figuring out how to transport it here but…"

"Relena was leading opening ceremonies," Heero finished.

The two of them may not have seen eye to eye in recent years, but they still had a rather significant past. Even as recently as a few weeks ago, she had sent him an invitation to be her 'plus one' for a dinner party. He always turned her down. She lived in the public eye, and he preferred to work behind the scenes, keeping the peace. She could never understand why he wouldn't make such a simple sacrifice in order to be with her.

He said nothing more to Quatre. Heero opened the door to the interrogation room to find Usagi scrolling through the images of the attack sites once again. He chose not to sit, but instead, he stood, leaning against the door. She barely looked at him as he walked in.

"Does the name _Saturn_ mean anything to you?" Heero asked.

Usagi was glad that she was facing away from him or else he may have seen her brief moment of surprise. He may have sensed it anyhow in the way she paused her clicking. "It's a planet," she said and resumed.

"Hn." Silence filled the room for a few moments before Heero swiftly moved forward, grabbing the back of Usagi's chair, and swinging it around to face him. He leaned forward, his hands on both arms rests, and his face mere inches from her. "Another one of my associates has been attacked. If you have information, now would be the time to talk."

Usagi swallowed hard, her head pressed against the back of the chair, and tried to look for a way to escape. Though she had yet to feel too threatened or uncomfortable while in the care of the Preventers (minus the last time Heero had a gun pressed to her head,) she felt the atmosphere now thicken. There was an energy around the man that led her to believe that he was quite willing to start resorting to violence, and that Quatre wouldn't be able to interfere again.

"There's plenty I could tell you, but you wouldn't believe me. I have no proof. I would sound like I'm stark raving mad if I started telling you what I know," she said coolly, trying to seem as if she wasn't feeling at least slightly intimidated.

Heero's eyes narrowed. "Try me."

000

 _Author's Notes: I apologize if this seems slow moving with short chapters. If I lengthened them, I certainly wouldn't update as quick, and I risk getting bored and losing interest in this story. It happens to me all of the time (which is exactly why it took me almost EIGHT YEARS to write and complete After Colony: Revelation.)_

 _Wow, I just have to say… Wow. You guys have no idea how appreciative I am of your reviews. Truly, feedback helps drive me, and I feel like since there are so many of you taking your time out to do it, I must continue! Thank you, thank you, thank you!_

 ** _TyneTyne_** _: I wish I had some experience in any form of martial arts! It would make writing fight scenes so much easier! I can visualize them, but I have no idea the correct terms sooo yeah… I will try to work more action in! (Don't worry, now that the pilots are about to be reunited, the 'intro' is essentially done!)_

 ** _Guest (#1):_** _I think you are right. I think it was about 2008 when they started doing major changes to the site, which caused a lot of the old stuff to go away. I've remained active for 10+ years, though I'm still surprised some of my old work is up! I should probably delete them, but they remind me of how far I've come!_

 ** _JennyFtBlock_** _: Your review really made my day! Thank you so much for taking the time to write such a wonderful review, it means so much to me! I also admit that I don't often review unless I am really enjoying a story and there are a few chapters because SO many simply die off. But it's reviews like yours that make me want to continue on!_

 _I ultimately settled on Wufei for the same reasons you listed. I enjoy "Wufei the Scholar" far more than "Wufei the Fighter," and I'm actually hoping to move him in a bit more of that direction in this story… with Hotaru's help! As far as writing for Usagi… I am not sure I could have done it if it were 'young' Usagi/Serenity. I plan on bringing more of that girl out throughout the story, but starting with the 'old' and apathetic Cosmos is what really helped me get started on this story! Either way, I have really always loved the UsagixHeero idea, and I'm glad you don't feel it's too overdone (like some other people!)_

 ** _Guest (#2):_** _I'm glad you were able to start watching the series online! They may be older, but they are certainly my all time favorite! (granted, this story involves the distant future Usagi. Hopefully you'll be able to find season 5 online where they at least mention Cosmos!)_

 _Thank you to everyone. Really! I hope I can keep up with your expectations!_

 _Ever Your Servant,_

 _A.F_


	9. Chapter 9

Cosmic Apathy

T

 _After an eternity of living out her days alone, missing her friends and family, Sailor Cosmos refuses to fight for the realms. In an attempt to remind her of her humanity, she is dropped into a needy realm and forced to survive without the Silver Crystal [01xUsagi/Sailor Cosmos; 05xHotaru/Sailor Saturn]_

000

Chapter Eight

000

"You expect us to believe that you're some sort of warrior sent here from another dimension to save the world from these attacks?" Duo asked from his chair in the lounge. Usagi agreed to brief the Preventers on what she knew, but only so long as the conversation was held somewhere more comfortable than the interrogation room.

So there they sat, Usagi on a leather arm chair facing a matching couch where Quatre and Trowa sat with Sally sitting slightly on the arm rest. Duo sat on a recliner, still recovering from his mysterious exhaustion, while Heero stood just feet away.

"I didn't think that she had head trauma, but maybe I missed it," Sally whispered to Trowa, who nodded thoughtfully.

"No," Usagi said loudly, glaring at the whispering pair, "I don't. That's why I didn't say anything earlier. I have to way to prove it."

The Preventers looked at one another, each thinking their own thoughts on the matter but not voicing them. Sure, they had seen weird, but not _this_ weird. And then—

"I buy it," Duo said. The group looked at him with raised brows and looks that clearly said _'oh, come on, really?'_ "Yes, really. You guys didn't see that thing. You didn't touch it, fight it. I did. It was evil, pure, unbridled evil. Things like that aren't natural, and if they aren't natural, they're _supernatural._ If there's something so bad out there, I have to believe that there's something else—" he nodded at Usagi, "—that's here to fight it. Otherwise, we're done for."

Usagi shrugged and nodded. "He's right. There used to be more of us, but they've been gone for a long time. In fact, this planet probably had its own senshi at one point, but she probably died and wasn't reborn. With the track you're on with the giant robots, I'm not surprised. Her powers probably never even awoken before she was killed in one of your many wars."

"So," Quatre started, clearly trying to wrap his head around the idea. He seemed to still be having an easier time than Trowa or Heero. "So, are you… the only one left?"

"No. There are a few others, off in other dimensions and galaxies. Of those who served me, there are only two left. Pluto and Saturn." When she finished, she glanced at Heero who had already asked her about Saturn.

"Wufei said he's brining someone calling themselves Saturn here. Said she beat him in combat," Trowa said, speaking up for the first time.

"Yes, that's her. She was the one who… healed… the other woman, Hilde. She was the one you couldn't see on the camera screen. I doubt most camera can pick up our transformed states. We have a great deal of energy around us when we're in such forms."

"But she _beat_ him," Trowa repeated, "I don't think you understand how hard that is."

Usagi rolled her eyes. "Please. We've been fighting to save entire universe's for thousands of years. We can take a few hits."

"You can't," Heero replied, cutting off anything else Trowa was going to add.

"Yes, well, I'm currently mortal. I can't do much of anything, as I've already said."

Quatre's phone could be heard buzzing in his pocket clear across the room. He hurried to pull it out and laughed slightly. "You could cut the tension in here with a butter knife," he muttered and looked at the number. "It's Noin. Hello, Noin, are you here? We'll be out in a few moments, head towards the back."

"Alright, finally," Sally said, standing and stepping away from the couch to let the others pass through. "I want to see this thing—this demon creature."

Duo mumbled to himself, unable to tell if Sally was poking fun at his comment, and stood, following after her.

When Usagi hopped up to trail behind, Heero quickly blocked her. He may not have been an overly tall man, but she was on the shorter side, so he still towered over here while she wasn't wearing heels. "Oh no, no-no, you aren't leaving me in here by myself. I told you want you wanted to know. I'm going to see the heart snatcher too," she demanded, thrusting her forefinger into is chest twice for good measure.

He grabbed her hand and squeezed, causing her to wince. "I don't believe your story. At the first sign of trouble, I'll kill you." He released her hand and turned, but he didn't stop her from following again.

"I bet you charm all of the ladies like that," Usagi sneered once he had left the room. She rubbed her wrist for a moment before deciding to quickly run and catch up with the group. If he wasn't going to explicitly tell her to stay, then she was sure as hell going to go. They had no idea what they were dealing with.

000

"Jesus Christ, that one's bigger than the last one," Duo spat, steadying himself against one of the work benches in the mobile suit hangar. Usagi had been allowed to follow, but they made sure that she couldn't see any of the codes to open the doors, not that she was particularly keen to go snooping around the giant robots.

"That one has been feeding for a while," Usagi replied, crossing her arms and slowly walking around the cell it was kept in. The woman called Noin had commandeered it from the local police station, and they had not been happy about it, apparently. The heart snatcher followed Usagi's gaze, snarling at her as she appraised it. "It's odd to see it in this form. When I dealt with them in the past, they were injected into random objects—motorcycles, drums, shoes, floatation devices. The dumbest possible things, really. It probably kept them from growing when they absorbed heart crystals."

Noin looked between the Preventers and Usagi, confusion plastered on her face. "I'm sorry, but… who is this?"

"It's a long story," Quatre sighed, rubbing his forehead. "Noin, this is Usagi, Usagi—Noin. Now, explain to us again what these things are apparently doing?"

"They're sucking out heart crystals, one of the forms of life energy, and storing them up to take back to their master. These crystals help power the beings from Tao Nebula. From what I gather, the weakest were sent out first to find new worlds to feed off of, but most of them were unsuccessful and died from weakness. One of the stronger ones, Pharaoh 19, has decided that it's coming to this realm and its minions are working on creating an opening for it to come through. What I can't figure out is how they're popping up all over the globe since usually they're based in one area," she said and stepped away from the cage. Usagi made a point not to stand with the group, but she knew getting too close to the beast would have been a very bad idea.

Noin looked at the group and then laughed—loudly, and bitterly. "This… this is some sort of joke, isn't it? It's not very funny. Zechs is heading to the infirmary, weak as a kitten, and Relena is fucking comatose. You're talking about, what? Aliens? Oh come on guys, you're better than this."

"We're just exploring possibilities," Quatre said, though his voice was quiet and not thoroughly convinced.

Noin looked like she was ready to throttle someone. She walked around to stand in front of the group of Preventers, just barely out of reach of the beast in the cage. "What the hell happened to you guys? I leave the base to you guys for a few months and—"

She didn't finish because she suddenly placed her hand to her chest and gasped. From behind her, the heart snatcher was inhaling deeply, pulling Noin's heart crystal out her back. The Preventers gasped but had no idea how to react. Trowa ran forward first, catching Noin and she stumbled forward.

"Well you wanted proof," Usagi said through gritted teeth as she side stepped the group to get to the cage, her hand snapping out to catch the heart crystal before the snatcher could eat it. It's clawed hand reached through the bars and grabbed her arm, causing her to hiss out in pain. She struggled with it, trying to maintain her hold on the crystal but couldn't manage to get free.

She used her free hand to move the crystal away, pushing it away from the cage and letting it float down the ground. Heero was the first one to her side, grabbing her waist and trying to pull her from the cage, but it was no use. "Get _off_ of me!" She shouted, though not at the man trying to help her. Much to her own shock, there was a bright white light that exploded from her captured arm.

The heart snatcher cried out as half of its body was obliterated, spilling more heart crystals out of the cage. At the same time, Heero and Usagi went flying backwards, into the cement ground of the hangar. She probably would have smacked her head painfully hard if Heero hadn't twisted himself to take the brunt of the fall.

The other Preventers had raised their arms to shield against the bright light, some using their other hand to go for their firearms. When the light faded, the beast was in the corner of its cage, whimpering, and they were left staring at and the softly glowing crystals littering the floor.

Usagi untangled herself from Heero and stood, though on somewhat shaky legs. "No one move, the crystals are very fragile. We're lucky none of them broke." She struggled to get over to Noin's crystal first, not wanting to lose it in the dozen others nearby. She carefully scooped it up, letting it float just above her hand.

"This is a heart crystal, this is what they're after. Trowa, how does Noin feel," Usagi asked. She was perhaps a little disturbed by how clinical she sounded when the life forces of so many people were scattered about her.

"Cold—dead," he responded quietly, though his voice was neutral.

"That's because everything about her, her hopes, dreams, love… It's all in this. It's a powerful force and is very dangerous if it's in the wrong hands." Usagi knelt down and brought the crystal to just above Noin's back, where it had exited moments before. It hovered for a moment before it merged back with her body.

There was a loud gasp from Noin as her color immediately returned to her.

"If separated for a little bit, the crystal and host can be joined easily and with basically no repercussions. When you have someone like Hilde, who went almost a full day without hers, it takes a while to bounce back though it's still manageable. For those who have gone longer… If they ever get their crystals back, who knows what will happen. They probably won't be the same." She stood again and went around the cage and started collecting the others and moving them far away from the heart snatcher—which only hissed at her as she neared it.

"I thought you said you were powerless," Duo said, waving his hands at the half decimated creature in the cage.

Usagi paused and shrugged. "Well… I guess I hadn't really _tried_. I _did_ manage to kill the one that attacked me in the warehouse, but I had depleted all of my energy. I didn't think I was getting any of it back. I don't know if I can do it again—don't count on it."

"You won't have to. We'll destroy them ourselves," Heero finally said as he stood, and stepped forward to more closely observe Usagi working with the heart crystals. She lined them up, one by one, on an empty shelf against the nearby wall.

"No, you won't," she snorted, picking up one particularly bright looking heart crystal. It was impressive how it shined—it reminded her of some of the senshi's she had seen. "Unless you figure out how to use your own life force to fight them, you can't do a damned thing. Bullets don't work."

"The Preventer with Saturn, Wufei, he killed one with his gundam's weapon."

Usagi looked at Heero in confusion, but she quickly realized that he meant the giant robots. "Oh. Well, unfortunately, he probably destroyed a lot of heart crystals. I used to be able to destroy them with an attack—destroy their body and save the crystals, that is. I have a hard time believing that some man-made weapon of mass destruction was able to kill a snatcher but spare the crystals."

"What just happened?" Noin spoke from her spot on the ground, slowly sitting up with Trowa's help. "That hurt like hell…"

"Well, Miss Usagi just proved that she's not nearly as crazy as she sounds," Quatre said then quickly blushed, looking over at the other woman. He raised his hands and waved them about, laughing awkwardly. "No offense, of course."

Usagi shrugged and placed the last crystal on the shelf. "Saturn can deal with the rest of these when she gets here. I can't do anything more. She should be able to search out their owners. Starting with your associate, I think," she said and looked over at Heero and pointing at the particularly bright crystal sitting on the middle of the shelf.

When he glared at her, though not nearly as coldly as he had been doing, she crossed her arms and smiled. A few moments later, she joined the group again and explained why Duo was feeling exhausted after his encounter. As she did, she didn't notice the single gold strand among the mass amounts of silver that momentarily caught on the shelf.

 _000_

 _Author's Note: If there's any confusion, this story is about Usagi's growth. Except… it's more like… reverting. What made her so special amongst all of the others was the kind heart she had when she was Usagi/Serenity, and not the evolved form of Cosmos._

 _Flu: thank you for your review! I am glad the short chapters aren't particularly minded. I have mixed feelings myself as a reader, but I suppose if there are quick turn around times, I can accept it. I recently went back and watched Gundam Wing again, and I have to say, Heero is more verbose than the fandom makes him out to be. Trowa is the quietest out of all of them. I have a soft spot for a quiet but mischievous Trowa, myself._

 _Thank you for everyone who is helping me make this one of my more popular stories, and quickly at that! 3_

 _Ever Your Servant,_

 _A.F_


	10. Chapter 10

Cosmic Apathy

T

 _After an eternity of living out her days alone, missing her friends and family, Sailor Cosmos refuses to fight for the realms. In an attempt to remind her of her humanity, she is dropped into a needy realm and forced to survive without the Silver Crystal [01xUsagi/Sailor Cosmos; 05xHotaru/Sailor Saturn]_

000

Chapter Nine

000

True to his word, Saturn had no problem entering the camp, even opting for crossing the parameter to announce her presence. It seemed that they had been waiting on her, as the camp was backed and there were two planes waiting to launch into the air across the field—one was holding Wufei's gundam while the other was a smaller transport jet.

There was little conversation during load in. Wufei did not introduce her to any of the other Preventers, as she learned they were called, and he only explained to her that they were going to the main base. He did not seem particularly happy with the idea, but she supposed he was still sore about their previous encounter. To her, he gave off the vibe of a man with pride. It wasn't necessarily egotistical, but more one based around having true incredible skill.

She did not take offense to the way he kept her isolated from the others as much as possible. She understood that she was foreign to him and the others, and he had no idea if he could trust her. Keeping her a safe distance from anyone and everything seemed the best way to ensure no harm came to anyone—even herself.

Saturn buckled into the plane, seated at the end of her row against the side of the plane, while Wufei sat down in the seat directly across from her. Since it was a military plane, it only held about ten passengers, besides the pilot and co pilot. Only the two seats on either of the other far ends were taken, and they shot curious glances as Saturn and their commander.

Their plane ride lasted for a few hours, and not a word was spoken during that time. Wufei seemed intent on keeping his eyes on her, and for a while, she took amusement at staring back at him. She had been told many times that she had a way of unnerving people—that her eyes seemed to suck people into an endless void and make them uncomfortable. Wufei was apparently immune to that affect. Perhaps he simply had very strong willpower.

When she grew bored of her little game, she closed her eyes and set her head back. She allowed herself to snooze, though she cracked an eye at any unusual bump or pause in conversation, just to see what was going on around her. She was still in her transformed state, so she was not threatened by the others around her. If she needed to, she could disappear off the plane, though it would be difficult creating a suitable tear in space-time on a moving vehicle. She couldn't be sure, but she at least hoped that her willingness to close her eyes while surrounded by unknown people showed her trust in them and put them at a bit more ease.

The pilot announced their descent and Saturn immediately sat straight again, knowing that they would be exiting shortly. Unlike the planes of the realm she had been reborn into, these did not need runways or landing strips. They were able to slow to a hover and then land, more like a helicopter. There was a rough _thud_ as the plane touched down, and shortly after, the engines shut off one by one and the back of the plane opened to create a ramp that touched the ground.

The climate was much cooler than the East Asia region they left. When she had last visited the main base, without their knowledge, she had not gone outside at all. She wasn't _exactly_ sure where they were, since her space-time tears connected her to places based upon her desire to be there, rather than her knowledge of the location. She did know that they were in Northern Europe.

Wufei unbuckled first and stood next to her, letting his men exit first before allowing her to stand. When he did, he had her walk in front of him to make sure she exited the plane without tampering with anything, she supposed. It was still daylight out since they had traveled back a few time zones and there were more Preventers waiting for them.

Saturn was understandably surprised to see that Usagi seemed to be willingly standing with them, her arms clasped in front of her and staring off at the mountain side with a look of boredom. When Saturn exited, Usagi looked over at her and nodded.

 _So she's told them_ , Saturn thought as her boots touched the grass. _And they don't have her locked up for being a mad-woman. That's a good sign, at least._

"What is she _wearing_?" Duo leaned over to Usagi's ear and whispered.

Usagi could see the way his eyes moved up and down the other senshi, as if he were appraising a piece of fine art (she supposed it was better than being looked at like a piece of meat.) Though all of the senshi had stopped aging at a certain point, Usagi felt that Saturn now looked a bit older than her, though still a bit younger than the wise and mature Pluto.

"That would be our uniform," Usagi sighed.

"I can get on board with that. I wonder if Quatre would be willing to let us make some changes to the standard Preventer wear…" Duo smirked to himself and elbowed Usagi playfully.

She couldn't help but look over at him in surprise. Though Quatre had been nice enough to her, Duo was the first to apparently feel comfortable in her presence. She had really only interacted with him for a few hours, but apparently he had already decided she was safe enough to joke around with.

It was rather… relieving.

Wufei stepped up and turned slightly toward the dark haired woman, "Saturn, this is the main Preventers base and its primary commanders. Everyone, this is… Saturn." Since he was clearly uncomfortable and unsure how to follow through, Wufei stepped back again and allowed Quatre to take over.

"It's a pleasure to meet you. My name is Quatre and I am the Preventers' Director. Wufei has briefed us on some of your circumstances, and our friend Miss Usagi here has done her best to fill in some…gaps. I believe you know her?" He asked and swooped his arm out in Usagi's direction.

"In some capacity," Saturn replied with a slight smile, though it did not exactly reach her eyes. "If I am in no danger, I would like to transform—"

"No," Usagi said from her spot a few yards away, "they have a youma—one of the heart snatchers—in a cage. It still has heart crystals."

Saturn glanced about to see that only Wufei looked confused on the matter. The other Preventers did not, apparently, seem to think that Usagi's statement was odd. "I see. Then I will destroy the creature and take the crystals. I spent my morning returning those that I could salvage from Wufei's mess. I do not think I will have the energy to resume until tonight, and that is if I can conserve my strength."

Now there were looks of confusion. Usagi had started to explain the basic concepts of the youma, the crystals, the invading forces… But she could only do so much before she started lecturing and she hardly liked sitting through class, much less giving one. Maybe Saturn could handle that aspect for her…

Usagi turned to look at Heero. "You said one of your friends fell to the heart snatcher, right? Well Saturn can help them. She can absorb the heart crystal and safely transport it to the correct body. It's best to let her take the heart crystals in now—the longer they stay in the heart snatcher or out in the open, the more likely they are to be irreparably damaged."

Fifteen minutes later, after crossing the lawn and entering into the mountainside hangar through a camouflaged door, the group found themselves once again standing in front of the black shadowy creature. This time, however, it seemed to know that there was a senshi among them, and immediately started violently banging against its prison and snarling loudly in an attempt to intimidate its opponent.

"So how do you destroy these things?" Duo asked taking his spot against the metal work bench, "you shine some bright light from your hand, and that's it? It's done? That seemed to work for Usagi, and, well, me to a certain extent…"

Saturn looked at Duo with curiosity, completely ignoring the commotion coming from already injured youma. "It worked for you?"

"Well, yeah. One attacked my friend, I freaked and tried to fight it with my bare hands—didn't go so well—but I managed to do something to it after there as a bright light. Since then, I've been completely exhausted. I mean, it makes sense, right? Not _how_ was able to do it, but that whatever happened _worked."_ Duo said with a shrug, his completely non-chalant attitude catching the two senshi off guard.

"You know," Noin added, "something similar happened to Zechs. I didn't think about it too much at the time because I was more concerned with all of the victims, but he did manage to temporarily subdue this thing long enough for us to get it into the cage. He's in the infirmary now, also exhausted."

Saturn walked over to Duo grabbed his hand. He looked like he was ready to snatch it back, for a moment, but allowed her to continue anyhow. There was a soft purple glow from her gloved hand, and suddenly, his eyes shut with a content sigh. When she released him, he smiled widely.

"Shit, it feels like I'm drunk and hopped up on caffeine at the same time!" He said and ran his other hand over the spot Saturn had touched.

"It's very interesting," Saturn said, placing a finger to her cheek thoughtfully, "it seems your kind may have the ability to tap into your own life forces and utilize its power, if its strong enough. I would be curious to run some tests and see if we're able to somehow focus it so you didn't end up completely drained. Well, that will come later."

She turned and waved her hands about a bit, trying to make the Preventers move back. Not a single one budged, much to her annoyance. She gave them an icy glare and stretched her hand out, summoning her glaive to her. It materialized in her hand and when it did, that weas apparently enough to get them moving. They all took another two steps back—some more—and soon, she had four weapons pointed at her.

"This isn't for harming humans. Usually." She turned her back on the Preventers with their weapons and thrust her blade through the bars with impeccable precision. It sunk in deeply in what was left of the youma's torso. For a brief moment, there was absolutely no sound, only silence. The Preventers could not even hear their own breathing or heartbeats in the intense silence that filled the air, and even though its mouth was open and it was visibly howling, the heart snatcher didn't make a sound as it disintegrated into nothingness. There were another dozen heart crystals littered around the cage and the floor once the beast was gone.

The Preventers were left stunned as some of them rubbed their ears from the strange sensation of complete silence. They had all experienced the silence of space, but even then they still had their own breathing. This was something entirely new.

Saturn turned back to the group and held her arm out in a very 'game show hostess' sort of way. "You see? No damage to the crystals." One by one, the crystals then floated in the air and to her hand, there they were absorbed into her body for safe keeping.

Wufei had not been able to get a look at her weapon up close, due to their precarious situation when they met. Once she was standing still, and the heart crystals from the shelf started floating over to her like they were drawn to her power, he braved a step forward to inspect the weapon.

"This design is entirely impractical," he said, critically eying up the silver weapon. "The blade should be far too top heavy based upon its size, even with the counter weighting." Wufei looked at Saturn from the corner of her eye, and she raised a brow at him.

"No, you cannot hold it," she replied, anticipating his question.

Wufei frowned but reluctantly stepped away. If he had been a lesser person, with poor discipline, he may not have been able to resist the urge to take the beautiful yet impractical weapon.

"Usagi, is it safe for me to return to normal here?" Saturn asked, looking at the blonde woman.

She shrugged and glanced over at the Preventers who had lowered but not holstered their weapons. "Well, they haven't shot me yet." Apparently, that was enough for Saturn because there was a shimmer around her moments later.

When shimmering died down, she stood before the group in a dark plum dress with black leggings and black slipper shoes—far more practical than the silver slip Usagi had been wearing when the appeared before the group.

"That's amazing," Sally said brightly, reflecting most of the others thoughts as well. "You hardly look the same! Well you do, but…"

"It's a disguise tactic," Usagi answered, "it's sort of a dissociation magic. Our appearance does slightly change, but the power of the transformation also influences the way we are perceived. For example, in our transformed state, we look racially ambiguous than we do in our normal forms. Saturn's body takes on more of an Asian appearance when she's out of her realm since she has not gone through a full rebirth since her last. I, on the other hand, have been reborn so many times with my body reforming after horrendous battles, that my form is much closer to my senshi appearance. It's rather difficult to explain without having other examples to show you."

Though he was doing well to hide it, Saturn could see that Wufei was having a hard time grasping the concept, or so it seemed to her. He seemed off put by her change in appearance and his eyes were particularly clouded with trouble.

"It's nice to meet you all," she said and pulled the skirt of her knee length dress out a bit to curtsy, "please called me Hotaru."

000

 _Author's Notes: Now the gang's all together! It took ten short chapters butttt I suppose it could be worse, right? I used the PGSM version of the transformation, sort of. The girls all appeared to be Japanese (with normal colored hair,) but then when they transformed, that's when their unusual characteristics kicked in to make them look more disguised. I imagine that Cosmos doesn't fully die like the others, she just waits for her body to remake itself after damage. Also, I have decided on the 'villain'—it is someone from the GW realm and a familiar face. One I love dearly (and may not have been my second ever cosplay—after Saturn!)_

 _ **JennyFTBlock**_ _: I'm glad you understand where I'm coming from with the Cosmos/Usagi personalities! I've been watching Sailor Moon Crystal, and the way I see the personalities is sort of like this—Cosmos is Cosmos the way I'm making her, Serenity is more like Crystal's version where she's slightly more soft spoken but determined, and then Usagi is the version closest to the original animation. Or something like that. They're just almost completely different people! We'll see how it develops, I suppose! Thank you so much for your review!_

 _ **Ladybug**_ _: Thank you for reviewing! Hmm, I haven't given too much thought to when Usagi will be able to take on her true form again, but I've definitely thought of some ways for her to start utilizing her powers… Heero will be interesting to write when involved with all of that because, well, he's certainly not going to take a Tuxedo Mask role!_

 _ **Flu**_ _: Wow, Trowa and Pluto… I've never actually given that any thought! That is a very interesting concept, I wish I had found a story that involved that pairing! Pluto will certainly be making an appearance, though I haven't decided her full capacity yet. Thank you so much for your review! (For here AND for After Colony: Revelation! I was so surprised to see a reader cross over to that story! Please don't be put off by the first 6 or so chapters, most of the major editing happened after then!)_

 _ **Guest**_ _: Thank you for your review! I will try to keep up the pace with the quick updates, hopefully I can stay creatively inspired!_

 _To all of my readers… a huge thank you! I love seeing that people are reading the story and hopefully it helps spawn some new stories for the fandom as well!_

 _Ever Your Servant,_

 _A.F_


	11. Chapter 11

Cosmic Apathy

T

 _After an eternity of living out her days alone, missing her friends and family, Sailor Cosmos refuses to fight for the realms. In an attempt to remind her of her humanity, she is dropped into a needy realm and forced to survive without the Silver Crystal [01xUsagi/Sailor Cosmos; 05xHotaru/Sailor Saturn]_

000

Chapter Ten

000

" _So the mission was a failure."_

"Yes, my lord, it seems there has been more retaliation than we expected," she responded, bowing lowly, despite the fact that there was no one in front of her. It didn't matter—he was still watching her through the eyes of his large, mechanized body.

There was a sigh from the mech's body. It came out crackled and distorted through its speakers. _"I had such high hopes for this realm."_

"All of the heart crystals from those three servants have been reclaimed, even those that were damaged by the Altron Gundam. Forgive me, my lord, I should have anticipated that they would retaliate." The words were coming out of her mouth before she could stop them. Maybe she meant them. Maybe she didn't. It was hard to tell through the constant haze she seemed to be in these days.

" _It is not the gundams I am concern about_ ," the voice came out as almost a growl, _"it seems there are cosmic warriors in this realm now—those annoying 'Sailor Senshi' who have done very well in keeping my brethren at bay. We must proceed carefully. As long as we continue to attack worldwide, we should be able to complete our plan before they can find us and close the portal."_

"Do these senshi truly have enough power to do so? We've grown the portal so large already…"

" _Not all. But those who are, are already here. Go, prepare the next wave of pods for launch."_

She bowed one more time and disappeared from the room in a blink, leaving the red and black mobile suit alone in its unused hangar.

When she reappeared, she was one the bridge of her base, watching the Earth slowly rotate out of her window. She placed a hand on the thick, quadruple paned plexiglass that separated her from the coldness of space, and sighed. "So beautiful, when we're done with it all, it will be yours again, Treize."

After a few moments of silence, she turned and started down the dark hallway towards her room. She would need to report back to the Preventers soon to keep them from sending more men to check on her, and she would have to change before she did so. She may not have cared for the long black dress and crimson jacket she wore, but it was what her Master had dressed her in when he granted her the new abitities she now had. She couldn't very well offend him by not wearing the outfit—which was oddly strong and protective, as she discovered after a violent explosion wiped out half of her men and part of the landing bay on the Lunar Base.

Once she had changed back into her Preventers uniform, she sat down at her desk and called up the main base from her computer screen. Quatre answered quickly, though based upon the shakiness, she guess he was using his cell phone and was walking about.

" _Une!"_ He greeted with a smile on his youthful face, _"we've been starting to get nervous down here! So much has been happening, and we haven't been able to get in touch with you!"_

She smiled and attempted to look somewhat apologetic. "The connection hasn't been great here, and I kept getting cut off each time I tried to call. Anyhow, tell me, what's been happening on Earth?"

" _Honestly? I don't think you'll be able to believe me…"_

000

Usagi's first chance to leave the Preventers headquarters came the following morning.

Hotaru had told the others that she was too exhausted from her frequent space-time hopping to transform again and return the heart crystals she had absorbed. It took a great deal of concentration and willpower to pull them from her body again and return them to the correct owners.

She agreed to traveling with the Preventers into the capitol city of the Sanc nation after a brief breakfast and spending the day helping those who had been victims of the heart snatcher. However, her primary condition was that Usagi be allowed to accompany them as well. It seemed like a simple request, but the Preventers still had to hold a small conference on the matter. Apparently, Usagi didn't have as much leverage as Hotaru when it came to making demands, and they weren't as eager to accommodate Usagi.

In the end, they agreed and Heero drove Quatre, Hotaru and Usagi at the head of their little procession. Duo and Wufei followed behind, though Wufei was hardly thrilled to be stuck sharing a car with the other Preventer who never seemed to shut up. Trowa opted to stay with Sally and Noin, in the event that an emergency alert came across their systems.

Throughout the car ride, Usagi ignored the steely glances Heero sent towards her and Hotaru through the rearview mirror and instead took in the scenery around her. They were definitely in Europe, or this realms version of Europe at least, based upon the architecture she saw. The area was absolutely gorgeous—they stuck to high roads that looked down upon a green countryside with very old homes littering the fields. Once they started to hit the 'capitol city', Usagi found it to be more like a very large town. It was nothing like the area she had grown up in, that was certain.

Most of the streets were not paved. Their cars bumped around a bit while they made their way on brick and cobblestone. Usagi noticed that many people were walking or riding bicycles. There wasn't as much motor vehicle traffic, though she supposed it was difficult with so many narrow streets. There were many old buildings that looked like they had been repaired over the years. Some had stone bases that merged with more modern brickwork. Based upon the way that clusters of homes looked as if they had been rebuilt at the same time, Usagi felt the city had seen a great deal of destruction.

They stopped when they reached a newer building. Usagi really thought it resembled a castle, though the Preventers referred to it as an academy.

"We're housing most of the patients from the attack here. Our friend Relena is the one who runs the Sanc nation, though she does a great deal of peace-keeping work on a national level," Quatre explained as he opened the door for Hotaru. Usagi was about to get her own door when Heero dutifully opened it for her as well.

Hotaru placed a hand to her chest and nodded. "The heart crystals know that their bodies are near. I will do my best to help everyone in an orderly manner. Would it be possible to put be in a location away from the infirmary and bring the patients to me, one by one? That would be the easiest way for me to make sure only one crystal gets out at a time. I wouldn't want someone to end up with the wrong crystal, since I don't have a way to pull it out of a body."

"I think we can manage that," Quatre responded and started up the pristine white steps. The steps were numerous, though they were particularly steep and lead to a large set of double doors. There were guards, though Usagi didn't think that either of the men standing watch were armed.

"Useless when they're needed," Usagi muttered to herself. Heero looked at her from the corner of his eye at her words, and she waved him off. "Oh, nothing, nothing."

When they entered the building, they found it was rather sparsely decorated, but gave off an air of elegance nonetheless. The interior was almost all white with a few accents of rose-gold. There were a few chairs and wall tables out of the way but providing a space for visitors to wait, if they wished. On each wall to their left and right, there as one large portrait—one appeared to be a family painting, restored based upon the different paint qualities—and the other was a building. Usagi couldn't be positive, but she suspected it was displaying the old castle that the academy replaced.

"If the Moon Kingdom had been a European Castle, I feel like it could have looked like this," Hotaru said, her voice barely above a whisper.

"Maybe," Usagi sighed with a shrug, but didn't give the idea much thought. She hadn't given the old Moon Kingdom, her original birthplace, much thought in a very long time.

"Bell's going to ring soon," Heero said, interrupting the girls' conversation. "Pick up the pace."

Usagi looked at him in confusion for a few moments before she realized that some of the rooms they passed by were actually full of people. Girls and boys in uniform sat staring at white boards or talking to one another, proving that the castle _was_ actually a school of some sort.

As directed, Quatre hurried his step and turned a corner. They had to take two flights of stairs, but they did reach the infirmary just as a soft chime echoed through the hallways. They missed the crowds by moments, though Hotaru wouldn't walk into the room.

"I'll wait out here until you can organize their single movement," she said, her hand once again returning to her chest, "it is better that I don't go in there."

Heero and Quatre looked at one another and Heero nodded. He stayed outside with Hotaru while Quatre took Usagi inside the infirmary.

It had been one thing for her to see just Hilde suffering from the heart snatcher attack. It was different for Usagi to see a room filled with 'heartless' people. With so much suffering in one area, it felt like she could hear their cries—their moans of pain and desperation, begging to have the light of their lives back within them. It was nearly unbearable. She swallowed hard and had to steady herself against the marble wall. She supposed this was something akin to a medium sensing tortured souls, or something like that.

"Are you okay, Miss Usagi?" Quatre asked, waving to one of the nurses.

"Just… just a bit dizzy, I'll be fine," Usagi replied and leaned back. She didn't trust herself not to fall on her face if she took a few steps away from the wall. "I'll just… stay here, if that's okay." She watched as he nodded and walked away.

Usagi tried not to look at the people lying motionless in their beds, but her eyes couldn't help but wander. There was a stabbing sensation that went moving through her as she saw the many children that had been affected. _Well, they did say it was at festival, and children are the most likely candidates to have pure hearts…_

She could hear another chime coming from the door next to her, but the sound didn't echo into the infirmary. Soon, the sound of footsteps in the hallways faded until she knew that it would be safe for them to exit again without getting lost in the crowds of students.

There was a crowd of orderlies gathering around Quatre as he explained their task. Some seemed absolutely appalled by the thought that he had a way to save the patients, but that the orderlies couldn't be in the room when it happened. Some had apparently learned not to question the gundam pilots-turned Preventers. Quatre returned to Usagi's side and led her out of the room to Heero and Hotaru.

"We'll use the lounge down the hallway. The orderlies aren't happy about having to wheel every patient over there, but they'll do it if it will help them recover. Will that be enough distance away from everyone, Miss Hotaru?" Quatre asked and held out his arm to indicate the direction they would be walking.

Hotaru nodded and smiled slightly. "Yes, I should manage. Thank you."

The group walked down the empty coordidor to the _lounge_. It was more like a recreation room, since it was so large and had so much space. Its double doors were particularly nice, since it allowed for the gurneys to be rolled in easily. Once they were settled in, Quatre closed the door so that Hotaru could transform.

The men were clearly a bit surprised by the flashy scene—not that they could see much. Unlike her detransformation, where she shimmered into her normal clothing, she pulled a wand from no where and quickly turned in a circle, the wand facing downwards. There as a blinding flash of purple light that came from the circle she 'drew', and when it faded, she was in her Saturn attire. Usagi couldn't help but snort a bit at the men's expressions (Quatre was slack jawed and Heero was… Heero, though his eyes looked a bit larger than usual.)

"Before we begin, is your friend in the infirmary, or is she kept elsewhere?" Saturn asked.

Heero shook his head. "She's in her bedroom."

"I suspected so. Usagi, I would like to give you her heart crystal. I'm almost positive the bright one is hers. It did not react to the infirmary patients like the others did. Perhaps you can take it to her while I work?" Saturn placed her hands just above her chest and closed her eyes, willing the heart crystal to come forward. It did not take much nudging since it was powerful and wanted to get back to its host body.

Usagi sighed loudly but stepped forward to take the glowing crystal. As she reached out to take it, Heero stepped forward and grabbed her wrist.

"I'll take it," he said.

"I am more experienced in dealing with the heart crystals," Usagi said, trying to pull her hand from his grasp. His grip only tightened.

"I don't trust you with it."

Usagi struggled again but then fell still, looking up at Heero's eyes. Though he was doing well to mask his emotions, she felt that somewhere in his blue eyes she saw concern—even fear, perhaps. "They're very delicate. They sort of hover without touching anything. I know how to move them and will them into a body. I promise, I will be as careful with it as if were my own child's."

The pair stared at one another for what seemed like an eternity before Heero ultimately released Usagi and stepped back. She gave him a small nod and Saturn extended the crystal to her. Usagi gentled moved it close to her body and walked to the door, feeling its power warm her cosmic core.

"Lead the way."

000

 _Author's Notes: And the villain is introduced! Mostly. I love Lady Une, I really do. So by making her a villain again, it's because I love her. And she would look killer in a Mistress 9-esque outfit (WHO CAN DO FAN ART?! SOMEONE MAKE THIS EXIST FOR ME! LONG FLOWING MISTRESS 9 HAIR AND EVERYTHING.) We will be exploring more of how that all came to be as the story continues, but we won't see as much until the youma attacks start resuming in true Sailor Moon fashion. Speaking of which…_

" _ **Next time on Cosmic Apathy! Usagi meets the famous and well loved Relena Peacecraft! Will we discover more of Heero's current involvement with her? Will the heart crystal even survive its journey just across the academy! Find out next time!"**_

… _I'm a little tired._

 _Anyhow, thank you to my great reviewers as always!_

 _ **Ladybugs:**_ _oh my goodness your review made me chuckle! You know, the first time I watched season 5, I didn't really like Seiya, but I think the fandom made me like him more. Mamoru is just such a joke! Though I do like him a lot better in Crystal than the original series. He was always such a damsel in distress…_

 _ **JennyftBlock:**_ _I am mostly a casual cosplayer, not super advanced (I do have a facebook page under the same penname, but I'm not trying to pimp my page, hahaha!) I am so glad you are connecting my attempts at 'realism.' It sometimes means it takes longer to get 'point a' to 'point b', but I feel better knowing that I at least tried to show something that fits in the 'real' world! Thank you as always for your wonderful review!_

 _ **Saris Yui**_ _; I'm glad you're enjoying the story! Thank you for your review!_

 _For the next chapter, I do plan a bit more action. I mean, really, you can't expect that Relena just gets her heart crystal back without much of a fight right?_

 _Until next time!_

 _Ever Your Servant,_

 _A.F_


	12. Chapter 12

Cosmic Apathy

T

 _After an eternity of living out her days alone, missing her friends and family, Sailor Cosmos refuses to fight for the realms. In an attempt to remind her of her humanity, she is dropped into a needy realm and forced to survive without the Silver Crystal [01xUsagi/Sailor Cosmos; 05xHotaru/Sailor Saturn]_

000

Chapter Eleven

000

"Don't walk so fast," Usagi hissed, her voice echoing off the high walls of the academy. There were in a long hallway with floor to ceiling windows lining their right side. It was a beautiful day and the fact that the sun reflected off of the deep blue ocean just outside made it even better.

Or, at least, it should have. Usagi could not shake the feeling that something was approaching. It sat in her stomach like a rock, but she didn't say anything to Heero. It didn't seem to matter though. Based on the way he kept increasing their speed, he felt it too.

There were guards standing by as they entered into another wing of the academy. Usagi assumed that if it operated like her own kingdom, then Relena probably had an entire wing do herself for every day purposes. The rooms they passed by certainly looked cozier and accommodating than the sterile, white lounges she had seen before.

The guards nodded to Heero as the two of them entered. Apparently the sight of Heero wandering about the academy was so commonplace, that they didn't bother to question his arrival. There were no other uniformed men and women in the wing, besides the two orderlies they saw once they hit Relena's room.

"We need privacy," Heero stated to the two women who were standing on one side of Relena's bed, looking suitahbly bewildered by his sudden intrusion. They looked at one another, and the one closest to them opened her mouth as if to object. "Now—"

"— _Please,"_ Usagi corrected, raising her voice over Heero's. He glared at her from the corner of his eye but said nothing more. Between both of their insitances, the orderlies scurried out and shut the door behind them.

Heero locked the double doors, just to be sure they wouldn't be interrupted. "You said you could help, so help."

Usagi nodded and took a step forward, but stopped before she could get any closer to the bed. "Something… something doesn't feel right."

There was something about the air. Despite the two of them being alone in the room with Relena, it felt that there was something else, something watching them. She scanned the room, trying to find any trace of darkness. It would have been easier with her abilities, but she had long since perfected her detection method that she could still pick up the slight distortion of energy around an object.

"Heero," Usagi whispered, trying to catch his attention without alerting anything else to her suspicion. His name felt odd on her tongue, and she realized that she may not have actually used his name once up until that point. "I'm going to hand this to you. Be _very_ careful not to jerk it around. If you feel like you don't trust yourself with it, place it gently on the table next to you. Don't take it any closer to the bed yet."

She sidestepped over to him, trying to keep her eyes on the wall across from them, and gently lowered the shining heart crystal into his hands. When Usagi looked up at him, she saw that his eyes were narrowed, though his concern or mistrust did not seem to be directed at her. He had definitely also picked up on the energy in the room.

Once she was sure that he had a safe hold on the crystal, she casually walked to the bed and adjusted the blanket to make it easier for the heart crystal to find its host. She then turned and straightened up the night stand—straighting the two books and sliding the empty glass around a bit. After doing her best to make it seem like she was entirely _uninterested_ in the objects along the wall behind her, Usagi whirled around.

Her hands landed on an intricate tiara—it wasn't ostentatious or obnoxious. It was just a small but detailed rose-gold head piece, not too far off from one she had worn before. Judging by the fact that it wasn't locked up somewhere, Usagi suspected that Relena had been wearing it when she was attacked.

As soon as he hands handed on the tiara, there was a zap as dark energy filled the air. She tired her best to hold onto the tiara, to use whatever of her own power she had to keep it from taking form—but it was too much. Absorbing the tiara's physical properties, the heart snatcher turned into a full blown youma.

Heero had to keep his jaw from dropping as he watched an odd looking being form before his eyes. It was _female_ in a way, judging on its more distinct characteristics, but it was far from human. It's body was tinted the same color as the rose-gold, and it had protrusions at hits elbows, shoulder, and around the crown of its head that mirrored the pointed details as the tiara. It cackled loudly as it knocked Usagi to the floor.

"I've been waiting for you to come back to the host," the creature said, though her words weren't directed at either Usagi or Heero. She seemed to be looking at the heart crystal in his hands. He was sure he was making it up, but he thought he could feel it quake in his grasp. "Such a brightly shining pure heart, the Mistress wants _that one_ in particular."

The creature licked her lips and made to jump towards Heero. As it did, Usagi snapped her arm out and wrapped her fingers tightly around the youma's ankle. Since she had already started to jump, she fell flat on her face when Usagi jerked the leg back towards her.

"You little—"

"Heero, take the crystal to Relena's body and set it on her chest. Hopefully that will be enough to urge it back inside!" Usagi shouted. She still had one hand wrapped around the youma, but it kicked at her, and Usagi had to use her other arm to try to protect her face from the spiked foot aiming for her.

It didn't take him more than a second to leap into action. The youma was nearby, but Usagi was doing her best to hold her down long enough for him to do whatever it was that needed to happen with the heart crystal. Once he started moving, he understood what she meant about the difficulty carrying it. Since it floated just above his hand, it moved every inch that his hand moved, which caused it to sort of bob back and forth unsteady.

As he neared the bedside, the creature shrieked out at him and tried to awkwardly sit up right. She grabbed onto the frame of the bed and started to try to hoist herself up. The moment she had leverage, she had no problem throwing the other woman off of her. Usagi hit the ground roughly, her head smacking off a wooden chest painfully.

"It's mine!" The youman shouted and leaned forward. As Heero set the crystal down on Relena's torso, he felt energy—almost like a wind—trying to pull the heart crystal to the beast. It took him a moment, but he saw that a black star on the youma's large, and very exposed chest was glowing. Without knowing what else he could do, he smacked the crystal away from the vortex of energy, sending it over towards Usagi.

Her head was spinning and she was seeing doubles, but Usagi was able enough to catch the crystal before it went flying into the side of the same wooden chest that now had some of her blood on it. The youma turned back to her and shrieked again. The youman's limbs started to elongate and she seemed like she was ready to pounce.

"Sorry about this," Usagi muttered and held the crystal out to one side, away from the youma, and raised her free hand. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes before unleashing a wave of white light from her extended hand. As she did, there was a cry from the unconscious Relena.

Once the light faded, Relena was grasping at her chest, sweat beading on her forehead.

"What did you do?" Heero moved to Relena's side, but there was anger in his eyes when he looked at Usagi.

She cradled the heart crystal to herself as its light flickered and then steadied. Once it returned to normal, she carefully walked over to the bedside and urged it return to its host body. They watched as it floating down into Relena's chest once more, where it would hopefully stay for the rest of her life. Then Usagi collapsed on the floor, her head resting against the bed. She couldn't feel the small amount of blood seeping from her injured head.

"I had to use the power of the heart crystal to blast the youma," Usagi sighed, willing herself to stay awake. She was exhausted from expending so much of her own energy. "I don't have enough in his form, not after blowing half of one to bits yesterday. I need to build up more. She'll be fine. The power in human hearts isn't usually unlocked. Who knows—maybe she'll find herself with some odd abilities now. Like healing. Healing is always…"

She hadn't even realized that she had drifted off for a moment before awoke to Heero in front of her, shaking her slightly. His fingers were digging into her arms, and honestly, that hurt more than her head. "Ow, what, what?"

"Don't fall asleep on me," Heero said, stopping his shaking. He didn't let her go, however, perhaps concerned that she would topple over if he weren't steadying her. "You have a head injury, we need get it checked out."

"I'll be fine," she said lightly, "I heal quickly."

"Maybe so, but you're in a mortal body, right? Better not risk it. Come on." Heero put one arm around her, behind her back, and hoisted her up into a standing position. It was a good thing his arms had a grasp on her, because her legs proved to be shaky as soon as she stood. He let her sit on the edge of Relena's bed for a few moments to try to recuperate.

While she sat, he bent over to examine the tiara that was now sitting on the floor. It was hot to the touch but undamaged.

"Are you staying here while she recovers?" Usagi asked.

He picked up the tiara carefully and looked it over before putting it into his coat pocket. Usagi didn't figure him one to steal, so she guessed he wanted to run some tests on it before giving it back to Relena. "No. She has plenty of workers to check on her."

"Oh," Usagi replied, her brows furrowing in confusion as she looked down at her wrist. It had been broken a few days ago, but now it was only sore and stiff. The youma didn't help matters, however. She could see purple bruises starting to form again. "I was under the impression you were… involved."

At first, she thought he was going to snap at her and say it was none of her business. Instead, he only groaned in what seemed to be annoyance.

"No, we are not. Come on, you're going to get more blood on things."

"You are _such_ a charmer," Usagi replied and rolled her eyes (which actually sort of hurt to do,) and reached out to take the hand he was now offering her. He helped her stand once more, but she waved him off, trying to insist she didn't need his help. After it was determined that she couldn't walk in a straight line, however, she accepted his arm.

Heero called for the orderlies once they were out of the room, and the two women came running from down the hallway. He explained that they would find blood in the room, but that none of it was Relenas and that they should expect to see an improvement in her condition.

"Should we call you if she wakens?" One of the women said, trying to discreetly analyze Usagi, who was still holding onto Heero's arm. Usagi glared back at the woman, scaring her into halting her wandering eyes.

"Call Noin, she'll want an update." He didn't say anything else as he started their walk back towards the infirmary where Quatre and Saturn were still taking care of patients.

Their walk was quiet, and now that the urgency of Relena's heart crystal was gone, Heero allowed them to move at a much slower pace. Usagi found that she did not particularly mind the silence. As she had grown older, she no longer felt the need to fill every moment with words. She could appreciate the peace around her.

As they walked through the hallway with the long mirrors, Usagi felt that was falling into a burst of déjà vu. It was like walking through the Crystal Tokyo palace, with Endymion at her side. She felt a wave of normalcy—like she could expect to see a young Chibi Usa run around the corner to greet her. It must have been the head injury.

Because of course, it wasn't Endymion next to her. She spared a long look at Heero, who looked back at her from the corner of his eye before returning to stare straight ahead. Endymion had given up on his rebirth before any of the other senshi had, and the girls never quite understood the void he left in her heart once he was gone.

With a sigh, Usagi released Heero's arm and placed some space between them.

000

 _Author's Notes: …. Have I… mentioned that we're in for the long haul? I was discussing my likes and dislikes of romance stories with some friends of mine… which is not really a good thing if you knew the kind of people we are. So yeah… prepare for character development rather than mushy "I love you, no I love you," moments. If you recall at the end of the series, Heero went out of his way to leave a birthday present for Relena, but he left before she could really see him—and that was when he presumably 'liked' her. He isn't one for romance, and even when he is, he's very distant about it! Sort of a change from the push-over Mamoru (_ _ **to my dear husband: not that there's anything wrong with that**_ _!)_

 _Also, while I will try to keep up with rapid updates, expect that they become a TAD BIT slower. Not much. Just a bit. Maybe every other day or so. When it comes to action and romance, I need a little bit more time to think on it all…_

 _Thank you to those who reviewed! I always appreciate feed back!_

 ** _Flu_** _: It's hard to write action when it's in an enclosed space, so I hope that what I wrote seemed at least believable enough! Saturn is way easier to write for action because she actually has a weapon!_

 _Thank you everyone for reading!_

 _Ever Your Servant,_

 _A.F_


	13. Chapter 13

Cosmic Apathy

T

 _After an eternity of living out her days alone, missing her friends and family, Sailor Cosmos refuses to fight for the realms. In an attempt to remind her of her humanity, she is dropped into a needy realm and forced to survive without the Silver Crystal [01xUsagi/Sailor Cosmos; 05xHotaru/Sailor Saturn]_

000

Chapter Twelve

000

"It looks like it's just a surface wound," the Sanc Academy doctor said after prodding Usagi's sore head. "I can stitch it up—"

"No!" Usagi cried and quickly pulled herself from the lady doctor's grasp. "No, no stitches. I'm fine, really. I just need to wash the blood away from my hair, and I'll be fine."

When it looked like the woman was about to become persistent, Quatre stepped up to Usagi's side. "If there's no further risk, I would like to do as Usagi requests. We can help her get cleaned up and perhaps use a bandage to keep the wound closed. If need be, we can get her stitches at the Preventers' Base."

The doctor seemed reluctant to let Usagi leave, but she ultimately agreed. "Fine. But before you leave, I would like you both to sign a waiver so that if there is further injury, it does not come back on me or the academy. Don't fall asleep in the next few hours, just to be safe."

It still took them a good half hour before they were able to escape the academy, but when they did, Quatre allowed Usagi and Hotaru a moment to relax and breathe in the fresh ocean air. Besides a moment of reprieve, their short break allowed Usagi a moment to take in some of the sun's rays. She could feel them warming her to the core, making her body's recovery a bit easier, even if just.

"What happened in there?" Quatre asked, though Usagi sat silent, staring off over the blue water and digging her hands into the white-gold sand.

"One of those things was laying in wait," Heero responded as he leaned over and picked up a broken shell. He drew his arm back and threw it into the water, just to see how far he could throw. "Leads me to believe that the attack yesterday wasn't random. They were targeting her."

"He's probably right," Hotaru said and shielded her violet eyes against the light. She wasn't used to being out in the sun for very long. When he saw her squinting, Quatre took his sunglasses from his shirt pocket and offered them to her. She gratefully accepted. "Back when we first fought them, the Death Busters—they were the organization working for Tao Nebula—they would target specific people suspected to have pure hearts. Originally, they were looking for three in particular, but after those were found, they continued looking for the ones that would give them the most energy. It's rather dumb, if you think about it. It makes more sense to get as many as you can and flee, rather than targeting one person and getting caught."

Heero picked up another shell. This one was white and pink, and fully intact. As he wound up to throw it, Usagi spoke up.

"Oh, don't throw it back it! It's too pretty!"

He looked it over and shrugged before handing it over to her and picking up another broken shell. Usagi took it and ran it between her hands, brushing the sand off of it. It was her first keepsake of this realm.

"It wasn't like the others. This one reacted when Usagi grabbed one of Relena's tiaras. Its shape seemed to reflect the tiara. Usagi mentioned before that they can hide in everyday objections," Heero continued.

"I wonder if we could find a way to contain them in those objects. If we could stop them from… changing shape, or whatever it is they do… it could make it easier for those of us who don't have special powers to fight them." Quatra put his thumb to his lip and hummed a bit. Wufei _had_ expressed interest in studying the creatures a bit more. It could be a project he spearheaded.

"What would be even better would be if those who have already unlocked their own power—the power of their heart crystals—trained to use it again, without energy depletion," Usagi said, her voice distant, as if she had barely been pay attention.

"Including you," Hotaru replied sharply, only to have Usagi mumble something undistinguishable in return.

"Can that really be done?" Quatre asked. Usagi shrugged, apparently unwilling to contribute more to the conversation.

Hotaru sighed. "Yes, it probably can be. Duo will likely be able to do it with some proper guidance. And there was someone else, wasn't there? The man who was brought in just before my arrival?"

"Zechs," Heero said, "he's Relena's brother. He's probably the most stubborn and strong willed out of any of us."

"Besides you," Quatre chuckled, earning him a glare from the other pilot.

Hotaru nodded thoughtfully. "Yes, then he probably can be trained as well. I will do my best to evaluate both of them when we return."

"Sounds like a plan. Now, before we return, how about some shopping?" Quatre stood from the sand and brushed his hands off. His socks and shoes were off and his pants were cuffed up a bit to help keep the sand out.

"Shopping?" Usagi asked, her expression visibly brightening. Heero groaned. He had been hoping that Quatre would forget about the shopping.

Quatre smiled and said, "yes, shopping. We will give both you a stipend while you're aiding us in our fight. However instead of money, we've decided to start by getting you both some clothes. It seems more appropriate than continuing to give you hand me downs from the ladies at the Preventers."

000

There were some things that never ceased to bring a smile to Usagi's face. Shopping was one of those things. She felt so… _normal._ Even with Hotaru at her side, Hotaru who had been very vocal about Cosmos's apathetic attitude, shopping was enjoyable. She liked walking down the sidewalks and looking through boutique windows. The fashions weren't terribly different than those in the realm she grew up in, though they did seem to be slightly outdated.

Sanc wasn't a particularly booming fashion capital of the world, but that was likely in part because it was a smaller, quaint city. Still, there was no shortage of places to go and see, especially for a newcomer like Usagi.

"This shop seems very expensive," Usagi muttered, looking about the shop they had entered. There weren't many outfits lining the walls, but those that were all had labels prominently displayed. She supposed they were designer.

"Relena shops here," Heero replied, as if that explained why they stopped at this shop first.

Usagi looked at him with a raised brow. "For someone who is _uninvolved_ with her, it's odd you'd know where she shops."

Quatre whirled around so fast, the girls thought that perhaps there was some sort of fire that they had missed. "You told her you aren't involved with Relena?" Judging by his tone of voice, Quatre seemed to be a mix of bewildered and… appalled?"

Heero pinched the bridge of his nose and groaned. "I'll say this once for all of you. Relena and I are _not_ involved. We have never _actually been_ involved, despite what everyone seems to believe. _She_ would like it if we were, but it isn't going to happen. She _is_ , however, one of my only civilian 'friends.' I do look out for her, and think she has the potential to do a lot of good for the world. There. Any more questions? Good."

Without actually giving anyone else a chance to ask anything else, he turned and left the shop. Apparently he had to 'take a phone call.'

"Finally, some drama that doesn't revolve around me," Usagi replied with a smug smile and looked at Hotaru. Hotaru didn't seem to take as much interest in the slice of gossip and rolled her eyes.

The two of them separated and quietly looked for some clothes. Despite the fact that Usagi had grown accustomed to living a life of luxury, she did not feel quite comfortable spending too much money on clothes. They were still staying with the Preventers, after all, and she wanted to fit in. When she approached Quatre and told him, he smiled at her. He must have found her attitude somewhat enduring by the way he pat her on the back and took her to an alcove in the back. He told her they could look elsewhere, but perhaps she should consider getting a cocktail dress, just in case.

So she did. Usagi tried on one but found that its cut was hardly flattering. She tried on the other and stepped out to look at herself in the tri-mirror just outside of the dressing room. She liked it well enough, though it wasn't something she would usually wear. It was a high collared black dress with rhinestones in laid throughout the bust of the dress.

"Black's not your color," Heero said from the wall just behind her. She hadn't noticed him walk up while she was appraising herself. She turned around to look at him, only to find that he was staring down at his phone, sending a message.

"And how would you know?" She said and placed her hands on her hips, watching as his eyes flickered up for a moment before returning to the phone screen.

"You said your favorite colors where white and pink. Why get a black dress?"

She had told him that those were her favorite colors. However, she couldn't imagine herself ever wearing pink, and wearing a white dress made her think back too much to her Serenity days. She'd rather go the exact opposite than that. "So you don't like it?"

"I didn't say that," Heero replied flatly as he stood straight. "You look fine, don't twist my words." He shook his head and walked off. She couldn't blame him. Women had a tendency to trap men in sticky situations when trying on clothes and asking opinions.

Usagi looked at herself in the mirror again, her head tilted to the side, and smoothed her skirt down. _Well, maybe he's right._ She liked the dress, but the black wasn't her. The boutique did, however, have the same dress in midnight blue.

000

"New shoes," Usagi sighed happily as she wiggled her toes around in the leather boots he had picked out. She could wear them with leggings or the skinny jeans she had got, so Quatre didn't mind the expense of them. She was lacing them up when Heero made a sudden stop, causing her to bump her forehead into the back of his seat. "Ow…"

"Media swarm," he said, causing her to sit up and look out the windshield. They were coming up on the Preventers' Base, but most of their way was blocked by camera crews and trucks, with reporters standing around to get a shot of the car pulling into the base.

"They've probably heard about us visiting the patients and their miraculous recoveries," Quatre replied in annoyance.

"Use my jacket to cover your head," Heero said, looking at Usagi in the rearview mirror again. "They have satellite footage of you, we don't want them to connect you to the patients."

Usagi nodded moved her empty shoe box aside to get to his jacket that sat between her and Hotaru. It was long, but not as long as the one she had stolen from Trowa when she was trying to escape. She leaned forward and pulled it over her head, trying to make herself sit as low as possible. Hotaru adjusted the jacket for her and turned her head from the windows as well.

As she sat, awkwardly hunched over and with Heero's jacket over her (which smelled oddly of cinnamon), she wished she had the Luna Pen. Then she could disguise herself without a problem, and even walk about freely in public.

Heero started to slowly pull through the crowd. She could tell as soon as they reached the mob because she could hear many different voices calling to them from outside. Usagi wondered if any ot them really expected them to stop for the media attention. Some even braved smacking their hands on the windows.

Then, the noise started to fade and Heero sped up just a little bit. "We're through the gates to the base," Quatre explained for her benefit. "As soon as we pull around, we'll move the car so that you're on the side of the front doors. I would keep the jacket over your head, just in case."

She felt the car loop around and then stop. Heero threw the car into park and jumped out of his door, quickly opening hers. He helped her out and tried to cover most of her body with his so that anyone with long distance cameras couldn't see too much of her—namely, her long hair. Once they were inside, he pulled the jacket from her so that she knew she was in the clear.

"I'll get your bags. Stay away from the front windows while there are people outside."

Usagi nodded but still snuck a peak outside when Heero reached the car again. They were some distance away from the front gates, but she knew that the technology in this world was quite advance. She wouldn't be surprised if they could easily snap a picture of her from their position.

 _So much for normalcy._

000

 _Author's Notes: I apologize if it seems slow moving. I honestly write everything chapter by chapter, and I don't have much planned out! I have certain scenes I would like to write, but I have to actually get to that point._

 _One thing I would like to mention, which might help clear up why there isn't much romance/Usagi's power, is that technically, Usagi's only been in the realm for going on two weeks! It will take a long while for any interest to buzz between Usagi/Heero, though possibly less for Hotaru/Wufei—she already bested him in combat, after all, and that would be step one for any woman going after Wufei!_

 _I can confirm that Usagi will go most of this story without using her true power. She has to grow into it again, and it will be a slow process. If you recall, in the Death Busters arc, the way she developed the power to destroy the youma was by creating a new staff—which happened because of her and Mamoru's love. (Think of this less like the movie Thor, where he is mortal for like 5 days, and more like the endless Loki-Loses-His-Powers-Fics (hey, I wrote one too, so I can joke about it.)There will be months of love, torture, and growth!)_

 _But what can I say, I love stories where the main characters have to struggle =)_

 _Ladybug: Thank you for our feedback! I hope this explains a ~bit~ more why Usagi doesn't have much of her power. I might have given too much away just now for the progression of the power… I have a scene planned to explain a bit more. I'm hoping to get that in next chapter! As always, thank you, thank you, thank you!_

 _Guest: I do struggle at writing the romantic parts, I can admit that! I will try to do better to add in more subtle hints. I felt that I needed to deal with some of the Relena baggage before things could start progressing too much, since I hadn't really mentioned her too much until she had been mentioned in the attack. I can't help myself sometime though with the 'sap,' so I'm trying not to take it too far too fast. Though I did start the lead up to an upcoming scene, but it will be a few chapters before we get to that…_

 _Thank you so much for everyone who read and reviewed!_

 _Ever Your Servant,_

 _A.F_


	14. Chapter 14

Cosmic Apathy

T

 _After an eternity of living out her days alone, missing her friends and family, Sailor Cosmos refuses to fight for the realms. In an attempt to remind her of her humanity, she is dropped into a needy realm and forced to survive without the Silver Crystal [01xUsagi/Sailor Cosmos; 05xHotaru/Sailor Saturn]_

000

Chapter Thirteen

000

"Come _on_ Usagi, this should be _easy_ for you," Hotaru sighed, her frustration seeping through her voice. They had been sitting behind the Preventers' Base for almost an hour, but making no progress.

After their return from Sanc, Hotaru took a few moments to help restore Zechs' energy. Like Duo, he started to make a quick recovery once she had finished with him, much to Noin's pleasure. The fact that Usagi was able to tell them that Relena was expected to be back to her normal self within a few days also helped their mood.

As soon as Duo and Zechs learned that they may be able to harness the energy they had expelled in order to fight the heart snatchers, both were eager to start learning. Noin was particularly surprised at how easily Zechs accept the idea of 'magic powers.'

So, the four of them sat in a circle with Hotaru directing the group. She had hoped that Usagi would lead, but apparently, Usagi couldn't summon her energy on cue anymore. It annoyed Hotaru to no end—mostly because she suspected it was less about Usagi being _unable_ and more to do with her being _unwilling_.

Usagi flopped backwards and lay on the ground with her arm covering her eyes. "I can do it while I'm in danger, so what if I can't do it now?" She said and brought her arm down just enough so that she could sneak a peak at Zechs yet again. She found his icy gaze already staring back at her. She hurried and covered her eyes again.

"Why do you keep looking at me?" Zechs asked. If he was annoyed with Usagi as well, he was doing a decent job at hiding it.

"It's nothing, don't worry about it," Usagi responded without moving her arm.

"If it was nothing, you would have stopped after the second time, not continuing to do it for well over an hour." His voice was even, like Heero's, but lower and actually somewhat… soothing. Usagi would venture a guess that a lot of people had found Zechs to be a charismatic leader.

She sat up again and looked directly at him—really taking a good look. "It's just so… odd."

Duo and Hotaru looked at her, both with looks of confusion. Hotaru seemed to be more lost however. "What?"

"You just look like someone else I once knew. Almost identical, actually, though an older version of him. He was the general of Earth's military, back in my home realm," Usagi replied, looking over to Hotaru for confirmation.

While there was a flicker of understanding from Hotaru, she couldn't provide any affirmation. She had, after all, been slumbering during both of his appearances. She did know his name, however. "You mean, Kunzite."

Zechs gave the tiniest inkling of a smile and nodded. "I see. I suppose it would be odd for you to see someone with a strong resemblance here. I was a Colonel in one of Earth's major military factions, but never a General. It's very interesting, nonetheless."

"Yeah," Usagi sighed and looked away. Silence fell on the group for a few moments before she stood. "I'm going to take a break. I want to walk around a bit."

As she walked away, she could hear Hotaru clarifying for the two men. _"The last time she saw Kunzite, they had been fighting against one another."_

000

After spending her morning walking around the Preventers' Base and exploring a bit of the mountainside, Usagi wanted nothing more than a cool shower to wash off the sweat and dirt she had managed to cover herself in. Since being deemed a guest rather than a captive, she had formed a bit of a routine—one that was necessary when living with a suitemate who was hardly around.

Considering it was almost lunchtime, she thought nothing of it when she grabbed her tan towel and threw open the door to her shared bathroom. After all, her suitemate was never in their room and she only ever heard movement when they were showering just after dawn.

Apparently, today was the one exception.

She found herself pressed against the narrow linen closet with the feeling of cool metal pressed against her temple. _I should really be getting used to having guns pointed at me, by now._

"Don't you knock?" Heero released her, but he still kept the gun in his hand. She doubted it had less to do with him planning to shoot her, and more to do with keeping it out of her hands.

Ten different excuses ran through her head, but Usagi didn't bother giving any of them. She didn't feel she really needed to, since it was technically her bathroom too. Instead, she crossed her arms and held her head up high, not breaking eye contact.

He had just come out of the shower. His hair was wet and he had a towel wrapped securely around his waist (though now that he had released her, his free hand was holding it tightly as well.) The smell of his soap still hung heavy in the air—she had probably walked in on him as he _literally_ stepped out of the shower.

"Why am I not surprised that you're the one on the other side of my room? And that you shower with your gun?"

Heero looked down on her passively and hummed, but did not respond.

"Just wanted to be close by in case I turned out to be some psychopath?" She continued, willing herself to win their staring contest. It was partially because she didn't want him to think he could dominate her in a battle of wills—and partially because she hadn't seen _that_ much of a male body in… well, in centuries.

"Why are you so dirty?" He asked, narrowing his eyes. Heero didn't seem bothered enough to order her out of the bathroom, which actually somewhat surprised Usagi. Then again, he was always so calm and collected that she should have expected he remain as such, even when she caught him pants-less.

Usagi shrugged. "Exploring. I wanted to see if there were any paths in the mountainside— _don't worry_ , I didn't go very far and there wasn't anyone around trying to sneak pictures of me. I took a bit of a tumble and came back." She lifted her arm to show him the bruise and cut on her left forearm from where she caught herself. Her knees were also a bit scraped, but she was fine.

Heero didn't say anything as he stepped back and made space for her to walk through the door. "I'll be out in five."

Usagi sighed and rolled her eyes. "Yeah, okay… you know, it would be really nice if we could at least latch the doors so this doesn't happen again. It's annoying that they only lock from the outside." She turned on her heel and walked out with a _hmph._

" _I_ at least knock if the—" she roughly shut and locked the door before he could finish. He only spoke louder once the door was closed. "— ** _light's on._** "

Well, he did have a point, as much as she hated to admit it. She should have at least noticed that the light was on before she just walked on it. Usagi sighed and sat down at her desk while she waited for him to finish since she didn't want to get her bed dirty. When she leaned back, she caught a glimpse at herself in the mirror.

She looked like a mess, but there was a bit of a flush creeping up her neck and cheeks. Usagi looked at herself in horror, feeling somewhat betrayed by her own body. _Dear Stars! I was with Mamoru for a millennium. I shouldn't be acting like a teenage girl!_

As she watched the bottom of the door for the light to flick off in the bathroom, her evil, conniving mind whispered back to her _"yeah, but Mamoru didn't have muscles like_ _ **that.**_ _"_

000

"You have a lot of gall showing up here," Pluto snapped as she heard Saturn's boots entering the hall. Though she should be standing guard at the Time Gates, she had to check in on the Cosmic Palace every now and again as well.

Saturn laughed, sending echoes through the hall and a chill down Pluto's spine. "You're one to talk. All I did was pick up the slack for Cosmos. _You're_ the one who stripped her of her power. _Someone_ had to do something."

Pluto winced before turning around to face the other senshi. "I didn't strip her of anything. You know that even I don't have the power to do that."

"Well, whatever you did, it's working. She can't tap into any of it at will, apparently, only under threat. She doesn't seem to care though, so if this is supposed to teach her a lesson, I don't know if your point's getting through." Saturn walked forward as passed up the woman who had been an almost mother and started up the steps. She stopped when she was just before Cosmos's throne.

Pluto stepped forward to stop her, but Saturn turned and sat down in it anyhow.

"Are you planning to try to usurp her throne, now that her power is bound?" Pluto asked, her voice coming out in a low growl.

Saturn ran her hands along the armrests and tried to sit back and make herself comfortable. She could not. "No. I just want to know what it feels like for her. It's not very comfortable. I can see why she doesn't like to sit in it."

"Thrones are never comfortable," replied Pluto, "it keeps the rulers from getting too comfortable with their authority."

"I wonder if things would be different if Chibi Usa had been able to take up the Cosmos mantle instead. Maybe then Serenity would have stayed in power and the senshi wouldn't have stopped being reborn. Maybe Neo Crystal Tokyo would have lived on, and the realm wouldn't have died."

It was a thought that they had questioned many times before, but there was no use in asking the _what if_ s.

"Chibi Usa wouldn't have wanted this fate anymore than Serenity did. They're both too kindhearted for this job. Serenity spared her daughter a great deal of pain," Pluto replied, her voice barely above a whisper.

"Kind hearted? It's almost difficult to imagine her having a heart, right now." Saturn stood from the throne and went to join Pluto by one of the grand windows looking out into the blackness of space. It was almost a void from their spot, but if they were able to look down far enough, they could see the Galaxy Cauldron below them.

They barely caught sight of it as it zoomed by, but the two senshi watched as a wayward Star Seed escaped the cauldron and disappeared into the depths of space. It was the first Star Seed they had seen in centuries—perhaps it was a good sign.

"She just needs to be reminded of who she is, and why she's dedicated her life to maintaining Order. Don't give up hope for her yet. You can't forget that how stubborn she was. If you're going to interfere in the realm, work with her and not against her." As she spoke, Pluto stared off at the spot the Star Seed had disappeared into.

"You've Seen something, haven't you? Are you really going to keep it from me?" Saturn started walking back towards where she had entered from, shaking her head slightly. She knew that Pluto wouldn't tell her, even if she had Seen something of the Future at the Time Gate.

Once Saturn was gone, Pluto sighed and closed her eyes. "Only Time will tell."

000

 _Author's Notes: I have a scene planned that will explain basically what happened (in a nutshell) between Neo Crystal Tokyo's Serenity stepping down from the throne and the start of Cosmos's Apathy. I imagine it will be quite emotional, so I have to plan for just the right moment…_

 _Now I just have to say…. I was not the only person who related Malachite/Kunzite with Zechs right? I mean, granted, I was a child and they were airing at the same time, but until I watched more anime and learned that the "long haired, platinum blonde man" was sort of a normal thing, I was weirded out by the fact that they were in both SM and GW. I MAY incorporate that into this, actually…_

 ** _Guest:_** _yes, this will definitely be a longer story. To be honest, I won't be surprised if I break 50 chapters with this story, based upon the length and the quickness I get them out! I hope you will stick with me until the end! Thank you so much for reviewing!_

 ** _Pat:_** _oh, Pat, Pat, Pat…. It brings a smile to my face every time I see a review from you! It means a lot that you're willing to give this story a shot despite not knowing the fandom as well! I will try to answer any questions you have to clarify! Sailor Cosmos is_ _ **not**_ _one of the originals, just as you said. The way it's been explained in the Manga (not so much in the anime,) that Sailor Cosmos is the 'final form' of Sailor Moon, though there is some debate on whether she is a reincarnation or descendant of Sailor Moon, rather than our heroine. For this story, I am going to go with her being the actual Sailor Moon, just 'evolved.' As for Poor Wufei… well, as you've seen from After Colony: Revelation, he never has an easy time! Thank you so much for your reviews Pat!_

 _Everyone else, thank you for reading!_

 _Ever Your Servant,_

 _A.F_


	15. Chapter 15

Cosmic Apathy

T

 _After an eternity of living out her days alone, missing her friends and family, Sailor Cosmos refuses to fight for the realms. In an attempt to remind her of her humanity, she is dropped into a needy realm and forced to survive without the Silver Crystal [01xUsagi/Sailor Cosmos; 05xHotaru/Sailor Saturn]_

000

Chapter Fourteen

000

There was a jolt throughout Usagi's body—like someone had shocked her awake. She sat up in her bed, looking around in confusion for whatever it was that woke her up. But there was nothing, only silence. She was about to lay back down in her bed when there was a sudden pounding at her door. It lasted only a moment before the door opened and Hotaru entered Usagi's room.

"Did you feel that?" Hotaru hissed as she walked over and turned on the lamp on the desk.

Usagi sighed. No more sleep for her, it seemed. "Feel what?"

Hotaru looked at her as if she had said something disgusting. "Really? You didn't feel that? Unbelievable… It was a Star Seed. _A Star Seed just planted itself._ " She sat down at the chair and started to slightly wring her wrists. She was usually the calm, cool, and collected one, but it seemed that the energy had affected her. Usagi thought that she looked both nervous and excited.

"That's not possible," Usagi replied flatly, "no Star Seeds have left the Cauldron in _centuries._ "

"Obviously I know that," Hotaru snapped. She then sighed and sat back, lowering her voice again. "I'm telling you, Usagi, I felt a Star Seed."

They might have wanted to continue to debate the subject, but they wouldn't get the chance. There was a rush of movement in the hallway outside of Usagi's room as people headed down towards the staircase. There was a quick rap of knuckles on the door before it was thrown open again, this time with Wufei standing in the doorway.

"Something's happening to Zechs, come," he demanded and watched as the two women looked between each other. " _Now."_ He appeared to have just woken up himself, and he had his phone in his hand. Usagi guessed someone called up to him to wake him up and have him grab the girls. His hair wasn't tied back—which was unusual for him—and though his eyes were wide and alert, they could still see the sleep draining from his face.

Usagi threw the covers from her legs, and swung them to the floor, immediately sliding her feet into her fuzzy white slippers. Hotaru was already on her feet and following after Wufei by the time Usagi stood. The trio went down one flight of stairs, the other Preventers clearing the way for them, and into one of the command rooms. Or, well, to the _doorway_ of one of the command rooms. They couldn't actually enter because of the miniature tornado whipping equipment around.

The banging seemed to be what woke most of the Preventers, and they stood in the hallway, mouths agape.

"What happened?" Usagi asked, raising her voice to speak over all of the noise. She was holding her hair down to keep it from blowing in her face.

"We don't know!" Noin was the one who answered, her voice in almost a yell. Usagi had quickly figured out that when it came to Zechs, Noin became rather protective—not that it wasn't appropriate, in this case. "He collapsed and then… That!"

Hotaru looked at Usagi and shrugged as if to say, _I told you so._

Usagi sighed and nodded reluctantly. "Yeah, yeah, you were right… Okay, I need to get in there." She went and stood in the doorway, nudging Trowa out of the way. His tall form was keeping anything from flying out of the room while they looked in.

"You can't go in there," Wufei replied, "one of those monitors could hit you. If you're caught in the head, it could be enough to kill you. One of us should go."

"I'm the only one who can calm the Star Seed. If I don't go, this won't stop." Usagi was about to start fighting her way through the impromptu wind storm when she felt a hand on her arm. It wasn't rough, but it was certainly stern.

Heero had joined the chaos and stopped her from going in. "We'll go on either side of you and keep anything away." He looked up at Trowa, who nodded. The two men slipped past Usagi and then pulled her in with them so that they could escort her to the collapsed Zechs.

If she had her senshi abilities, Usagi could have probably gotten through much more quickly. However, she was forced to stumble through the wind and nearly topple over because of the force. They had been right about the possibility of getting hit. Even though she stayed low, some of the smaller pieces that hadn't been secured in place went whizzing past the metal desks and almost nailed her in the temple. Trowa batted the item—a detachable computer speaker—away and it crashed into a desk moments later.

Heero caught one of the monitors that also nearly hit her. He grunted, though she couldn't hear it over the wind, and held onto it. He used it as a shield and let other items bash into it, shattering the smaller items—as well as the computer screen.

Once they reached Zechs's body, which only took about an agonizing thirty seconds, the men formed a barrier around her. The wind wasn't very strong around his body, but items that caught in the vortex close to them were more likely to rapidly circle around.

Usagi placed her hands on Zechs's back and closed her eyes, focusing what little power she had. It took her a bit to block out the sounds around her, but when she did, she narrowed in on the Star Seed that had caused all of the commotion. She was surprised when she 'touched' it. She hardly expected to recognize the Star Seed, since she wasn't even in her own realm, but she did, if only in passing.

It seemed it was a weird twist of fate after all. She wondered if it would have happened if she hadn't pointed out the similarities, or if the Star Seed would have remained in slumber. It was only _barely_ a Star Seed after all. It wasn't one of the True Seeds—it was one that she had put there herself in hope that it would one day have a chance at rebirth.

The Star Seed warmed to her touch, apparently recognizing her as well. More surprising was the way it _accepted_ her. She thought that surely he would still have been at odds with her, especially if Endymion wasn't around. Usagi helped the Star Seed settle into Zechs's body, feeling the exact moment when it merged with his core. The fact that Zechs had already unlocked the power of his heart crystal seemed to help the matter, making the transition easy.

The wind started to die down. Heero and Trowa had to keep a few things from raining down on them, but besides that, everything seemed to return to normal. Zechs was breathing steadily and appeared to be simply asleep. She wasn't surprised. The sudden burst of energy probably stunned his body. She guessed that he would awake shortly though.

"Will he be alright?" Trowa asked, kneeling down to check Zechs's pulse.

Usagi nodded. "Oh yeah—better than fine, probably. It looks like your planet just got its first Cosmic Warrior." She slid away from Zechs's body to give Trowa space to work and leaned against a nearby desk—probably the one Zechs had been sitting at before his collapse. She closed her eyes and rested for a few moments.

When Usagi opened them again, she saw that Heero was looking down on her oddly. She raised a brow and cocked her head to the side. It wasn't as if he hadn't seen equally as odd things happen since the two of them first met.

"Your eyes."

"What about them?" She asked and stood. More people were coming into the room now—Noin and Hotaru leading the pack. Heero didn't answer as he stepped back and left the area. Apparently he didn't want to be in the way as the interested onlookers entered to check on Zechs.

"I'm glad you were at least able to settle the Star Seed," Hotaru said as she walked up. She stood next to Usagi since she didn't need to see the Preventer to know he was okay.

"I might not be able to do much, but that wasn't all that difficult," Usagi sighed and crossed her arms. She was getting tired again. All she wanted was her bed. She wondered if she could sneak out before anyone grabbed her to explain the situation…

"I don't suppose we know who it is, do we?" Hotaru asked, nodding towards Zechs body.

"Yes, actually," Usagi replied and started stepping towards the door. Hotaru followed after her, and once they were safely down the hallway, she continued. "Remember how I said that Zechs reminded me of Kunzite? Well, as odd as it is…"

Hotaru shook her head. "That can't be possible. He may have been one of Endymion's warriors, but he didn't have a Star Seed."

Usagi shrugged. "Well _I_ know that, obviously. But I did put his core in the Cauldron, along with the others. Endymion had held onto them with the hope that they would be reborn. Once he was gone… I took them and put them with Endymion's Golden Crystal. He didn't have a Star Seed either, but his core belonged there."

"But why? Why of _all_ the Star Seeds, all of the incredibly powerful souls waiting to be reborn, would Kunzite appear? He wasn't even one of yours," Hotaru asked. They were glad that they had escaped the chaos. When it seemed that no one was going to come looking for them, they started up the side flight of stairs to head back to their bedrooms.

"I have no idea," Usagi replied, "perhaps because this is this realm's Earth, he felt a connection to it? And when Zechs unlocked his core, Kunzite felt the opportunity and took it? It's a bit strange, yeah, but hey, at least they have someone who can obliterate the heart snatchers too. It should make teaching Zechs to control his power a lot easier."

"Now if only we could make it easier for _you._ "

Usagi waved Hotaru off with a roll of her eyes as she reached her door. Her room was before Hotaru's, and she had every intention of heading straight back to bed. They didn't need to go through the whole ' _but what does it mean?'_ spiel until the morning. "I did my part. I'm going to sleep. Good night, again."

If Hotaru wanted to continue their conversation, she didn't push the matter. Instead, Hotaru milled about and ultimately headed back towards the stairs to join the crowd once more. Usagi sighed and shut her door. Well, Hotaru had always been a night owl. Usagi preferred her sleep.

Before she went to bed, Usagi went into the bathroom to find her comb. Her hair was a mess and she needed to comb it out before she fell asleep and it got _worse_. She picked a few knots from her hair and glanced up. She would glance at herself two more times in the mirror before she would realize why she kept looking. The silver eyes she had grown so accustomed to seeing for the past millennium were not looking back at her—not entirely. They weren't quite as pale as they should have been—there were flecks of blue dotting her irises.

Usagi stared at herself in confusions, a handful of hair still bunched in her hand. It wasn't much, but a few strands of gold stuck out to her as she continued to pick through the knots.

She continued to brush in silence and when she finished—it took longer than she had hoped—she stopped and stared down at her hands. Her hands that had helped the poor, confused, and unpracticed Star Seed find its home. She hadn't needed her power to be able to do that. She did that on her own.

There was a knock on the bathroom door from Heero's side. Before she could think about what she was saying, she called out, "come in."

There was a pause and then he did just that. Heero's eyes found hers, which were apparently still rather confused looking. "You okay?"

When he spoke, Usagi was apparently transported back into the 'real world.' She stiffened and nodded. "Yes, I'm fine. Good night." Without another word, she turned and went back into her room. She shut and locked the door behind her.

The bed looked even more enticing, now that there was a mental storm brewing in her tired head. Usagi walked over and feel forward into her mass of blankets. She didn't even bother pulling them around her before she started to fall asleep. Instead, she allowed herself to bask in the moonlight streaming through her window.

000

 _Author's Notes: I apologize for the delay! I was a bit unmotivated, and unsure of how I wanted to continue. After a few days thought and some research on the SM universe, I decided on the direction I wanted to take the story._

 _For those who may be a bit confused: Senshi all have Star Seeds which give them their powers, and those Star Seeds are housed in the Galaxy Cauldron (which is not an actual cauldron. I believe it was depicted as kind of like a Nebula or something). Sailor Cosmos is the Keeper of the Cauldron, so it would make sense that she took the cores of Endymions Generals and placed them with him and her senshi in the cauldron._

 _Why did Kunzite appear before the others? Because I like Zechs, that's why. Now that the first Star Seed has been reborn, it's likely that we will see others popping up…_

 _Next time on Cosmic Apathy! Quatre's a busy man, what with being the face of the Preventers and all, as well as still technically heading Winner Corp. Luckily, he has Dorothy to help him when things get busy! (Did I say 'lucky?' I mean, "that poor man.")_

 _Pat: I cannot tell you how loud I laughed when you said "that guy with the top hat." Seriously, I think that may have been the highlight of my day! Because unfortunately, that was kinda all he was good for in the show—being known as the guy with the mask and the top hat! Tuxedo Mask/Endymion/Mamoru will be mentioned throughout the story, but like the rest of the senshi/scouts, he has been dead for a very loooonngg time. Thank you so much for reading, Pat! Really!_

 _Thank you to everyone else for reading as well! Hopefully I will update quicker this time!_

 _Ever Your Servant,_

 _A.F_


	16. Chapter 16

Cosmic Apathy

T

 _After an eternity of living out her days alone, missing her friends and family, Sailor Cosmos refuses to fight for the realms. In an attempt to remind her of her humanity, she is dropped into a needy realm and forced to survive without the Silver Crystal [01xUsagi/Sailor Cosmos; 05xHotaru/Sailor Saturn]_

000

Chapter Fifteen

000

"Well, that went _swimmingly_ ," Duo said, the sarcasm practically dripping from his words as he twirled an apple around in his hand, looking for bruises. When he found none, he shrugged and bit in. He didn't hesitate to lean back and kick his feet up onto the white marble table.

Quatre didn't respond, as he was too busy with his head down, messaging his temples.

"What did you expect? An immediate overwhelming acceptance of the fact that the Preventers are 'handling' the situation? They wanted a plan. They wanted to hear that the attacks would be stopped entirely, not just that they could be mitigated. And get your dirty feet off my table." Dorothy was the one who answered as she walked back into the conference room, shutting the door behind her.

Duo glared at the woman, who glared right back. He tried to ignore her steely gaze, but he eventually caved and let his feet drop back to the ground with a loud _thud._ "When's food getting here? I'm _starving._ "

"Do you ever stop eating?" Dorothy asked with a sneer and crossed her arms.

"Do you ever stop being an annoying—"

There was a knock at the door which cut off Duo's words. Dorothy stepped over and opened one of the white and gold double doors to let one of the wait staff come through with their dining cart. Though refreshments had been provided for their meeting, the little pastries and coffee had hardly managed to sustain them.

The meeting had been one that was pulled together at the last minute. Many of the ESUN leaders wanted an update regarding the Preventers' recent movements and activities, much to Quatre's dismay. Additionally, since Relena was still recovering from her stint with the heart snatchers, he couldn't organize a meeting at her Academy, which was the normal fall back for ESUN based gatherings. (Though the Preventers had a rather nice set up, they weren't designed to host so many people, especially with many telecommunicating in to participate.)

The next best location was the Catelonia Estate in Italy. Dorothy was not an official Preventer—her love of war seemed to get in the way of _preventing._ However, she was on the finance committee and handled overseeing the allocation of the donations Relena and Quatre brought in for the organization. Quatre didn't particularly enjoy Dorothy's company or her involvement in the Preventers, but he couldn't deny her efficiency and ability to multiply their funds.

Quatre sighed loudly. "Let's not fight. I don't have the energy." His voice certainly seemed to reflect that sentiment. His tone was flat and had maybe a hint of annoyance behind it, which was rather uncharacteristic for him.

Spending over four hours being verbally attacked by international politicians could really take it out of a person—even the ever diplomatic Quatre.

Duo stood and waved the other man off with an eye roll. Unlike Quatre, Duo was even less accustomed to the political banter. As far as the 'extra help' went, he wasn't the first choice. Or the second or third, for that matter. Trowa normally attended conferences as Quatre's second, but he was supposed to be conducting a bit of a study on the attack patients with Sally at the Sanc Academy and they decided it wasn't worth it to switch plans. Heero refused to leave the general area of the base unless it was an emergency—some said it was because of Relena's unwaking state, others said it was because he was keeping an eye on Usagi and Hotaru. Noin and Zechs both preferred to stay out of the public eye, and for pretty good reason after the whole _drop Libra onto Earth_ bit from a few years back.

Wufei hadn't even graced Quatre with an answer. He was too absorbed in his work, researching different ways to counter the energy signatures given off by youma-infected items. Quatre would have normally been exasperated by the fact that Wufei ignored him outright, but the sight of glasses on the Asian pilot threw Quatra off so much, that he walked back out from the workshop in confusion.

After the waiter moved the cart to side of the room, where they could then serve themselves, he bowed his head slightly and swiftly left the room. Dorothy shut the door behind him, and as she did, Duo was already making his way to the food.

"Be sure to leave some for the rest of us," the woman said and started to walk up behind Duo.

"Yeah, yeah, seriously, you're always so—" As soon as Duo went to remove the silver semi-circle that was covering the food to keep it warm, there was a surge of energy, and he went flying backwards. He landed on the large marble table and slid a few feet on its smooth surface.

There was a bright light and a sort of screeching sound that caused the trio to try to cover both their eyes and ears. After their temporary blindness and deafness left them, they found themselves facing some sort of…. Thing.

"Not again," Duo muttered and tried to roll from the table. It was hard to do with all of the chairs surrounding him, but he managed. The thing didn't seem to even notice him and instead focused in on Quatre.

"Keh-yah," the creature screeched again, it's voice hitting absurd octaves, "you look delicious!"

Duo was sure the comment was supposed to be some attempt at humor or a pun, or something. The creature was silver, vaguely female looking, with a shell that appeared to resemble the food cover. It also didn't exactly have _hands_. Protruding from each arm was one long blade—not swords, necessarily. More like steak knives.

Duo's mind was racing. The energy in the air reminded him of the attack on Hilde, but the creature was drastically different from shadow beast he faced then. This one was less of an animal and certainly more sentient. He doubted that he would be able to give it a blast and end it… if he even _were_ able to blast it again.

Quatre barely had time to stand and push his chair away from him before the creature jumped. It leaped nearly twice its height (doable due to Dorothy's extremely vaulted ceilings,) and landed on the pilot. Quatre crashed to the ground and tried to protect his face, but it pinned his arms down with its legs and pointed one of its blades down at the center of his throat.

"Sorry, I don't like playing with my food," the creature said with a laugh and he grimaced. It's sense of humor was incredibly tacky.

As the creature started to suck in, Quatre cried out in pain. It felt as if something were trying to burst through his chest. _"My heart,"_ he thought, _"it's after my heart."_ With the realization of what was happening, Quatre grit his teeth in determination. If they wanted to take one of their hearts, then the enemy had simply chosen _wrong._ Out of all of them, Quatre was likely the most attached to his empathetic heart.

He cried out again, but nothing came. His will kept the crystal from bursting forth.

"You're a tough one, huh? Well, I'll just cut the skin away to get to that tender, juicy—"

"Ugh, _stop with the food puns_ ," Dorothy demanded from behind. The creature turned its head in surprise, apparently having forgotten about the other two in the room.

In her hand, Dorothy held a rapier. A quick glance above the doorway told Quatre that she had jumped on a chair and pulled down one of the two rapiers that were mounted on the Catelonia family crest. He briefly hoped that the sword was real, but then pushed the thought away. _Of course_ Dorothy would keep actual swords within her reach at all times.

The woman lunged forward and made to stab the creature. Her weapon bounced off of the shell of a back, though it did leave a bit of a dent on the shiny surface.

"Khe-yah!" The creature shrieked loudly and looked at the mar in disgust. "That will take weeks to buff out!" It moved from Quatre, though not before digging its knees into his forearms, and centered its attention on Dorothy.

While the creature was momentarily distracted, Duo turned to run to Quatre's side. "Quatre! Are you okay—"

As he started to run around the side of the table, his back to the windows, Duo felt like something hit him in the back. No, not just _hit—shot._ He started to fall forward, his eyes wide and unseeing. Quatre couldn't stand fast enough to try to catch him, and Duo landed on the hard floor, face first. Watching as he fell was like watching in slow motion. There was something so… off about the situation, which was really something when he stopped to consider the giant silver woman-monster slashing away at Dorothy.

Quatre looked between Duo and Dorothy, trying to decide who he should be helping. Seeing as Dorothy seemed to be handling herself well enough, he staggered to the other pilot's side.

There was no visible wound on Duo's back. No sign of entry or anything like that. Quatre knelt down and touched the braided pilot's back, only to receive a jolt through his body. It was like electricity, or really, a static shock. Though he felt the energy going through him, it didn't really _hurt._ His initial reaction was to pull his arm away, but he went against that for his instinct, which was to place both hands on the pilot's back.

For a moment, it was like tunnel vision. Quatre could feel Duo's terror, but there was something else—like another presence. And that presence was also scared and confused. Though he couldn't necessarily speak with it, Quatre didn't really need to. He had enough practice with Sandrock to know that sometimes there was just life in the oddest of places.

Dorothy jumped forward and stabbed the creature at the somewhat fleshy point near its shoulder. The creature screamed and stumbled backwards, shocked by the black blood pouring out of its wound. "How—how is that possible? You're just a human!"

"My weapon's gundanium, of course. You're just soft silver!" Dorothy didn't waste any time before she was rushing forward again. She spun around and used the force to slash forward, cutting off the beats right hand at the wrist. The large metal sword-limb clattered to the ground and the woman cracked a rather malicious smirk.

Instead of backing down, the creature only seemed to become angrier. It screamed loudly, causing the others in the room to go for their ears again. It didn't use that moment to attack however. No, it took a moment before Dorothy understood what was going on, but when she did, she scowled. The shell on its back seemed to be shrinking. It was absorbing the metal into its body and reforming its lost limb.

"Oh, come on! That isn't fair!" Dorothy snapped and stomped her foot. Most people would have likely been terrified in her position. Instead, she looked ready to throw a hissy fit.

"Heh, you can't get rid of me that easy, girl. I have plenty of reserves, I can do this all day!"

Quatre looked over his shoulder to see what was happening with Dorothy. For the most part, it seemed that the beast was still rather unscathed, which did not bode well again. He looked back down at Duo and furrowed his brows.

"Please Duo, we need you. You're the only one of us who has faced this before…"

 _Let me help_. _I want to help._

It was not Duo that answered him. It was something else—whatever it was he was feeling inside of his friend seemed to channel itself through their touch. Though he understood what it was saying, he did not really _hear_ it. It wasn't male or female. It was just… there.

And it wasn't Quatre it was 'speaking' to. It was Duo. There was a shudder through the other pilot's body, and another shock. This one was strong enough to cause Quatre to pull his hands back quickly. This shock was visible—and then there was more. Green bolts of electricity originated around the center of Duo's body and grew in intensity.

Quatre scrambled backwards and tried find a safe place from the energy. However, as the power started to overtake the one side of the room entirely, it appeared there was no safe spot. He fell down behind one of the high backed, wooden chairs, and just watched as the green bolts started ricocheting off of the walls.

Dorothy was on the ground and creature raised both of its arms, possibly to make an 'X' slice across the woman's body. It had a large smile, thrilled to be able to slice open its new dinner. Just as it was about to bring its sword-limbs down, the energy reached it reached its back. As silver is one of the most conductive of metals—even higher than copper—it wasn't long before its entire body was paralyzed from the electricity.

Duo slammed his hand onto the marble table and used it to pull himself up. Quatre thought briefly that his friend appeared to be in pain, but then decided that it wasn't the case. His face was scrunched up in… determination? It looked more like he was trying to contain the sudden power that was surging through his body, though it wasn't harming him. Quatre then noticed that there was a glowing mark on the man's forehead—one that looked vaguely like the number four.

Jupiter, it was the sign for Jupiter. Quatre had done his research after Usagi spoke of the Sailor Senshi, and he knew what he was seeing. Jupiter had chosen Duo's body as its new host.

With the moment of reprieve granted, Dorothy scrambled away from the still creature and tried to get to the door. She thought better than to touch the metal handle at the last moment, and instead dove down to take cover next to Quatre. The pair could only watch as the other pilot staggered over to the creature.

"You guys really need to pick better targets," Duo said, giving a dry laugh. He slowly raised his hands so that they were just inches apart. The energy around him started to centralize between his hands, crackling as it grew into a ball.

The creature looked back at Duo, eyes wide in terror. If it wanted to object, it couldn't as its jaw was tightly clenched. It watched as the pilot drew his arms to one side, almost as if winding up for a low pitch, and then thrust all of the energy forward into the creature. It made _some_ _sort_ of sound as its body started sizzling from the inside out. It collapsed to its knees and then fell forward.

While sit started to fall forward as a vaguely humanoid shape, by the time it hit the floor, it was nothing more than the silver cover (with a small slash on one side). A seed, or pod, or something, emerged from the top and tumbled to the side. It sizzled for another moment before cracking open and releasing a bit of black smoke.

Quatre and Dorothy watched in shock while the room started to return to normal. Duo staggered to the table again and sat down in one of the chairs, placing his head in his hands. Quatre was the first one to his feat, running to his friend's side. He hesitated before placing a hand on Duo's shoulder.

"Are you… okay?"

Duo took a few deep breaths before lifting his head to look back up at Quatre. The mark on his forehead was fading, and he had a smile on his face. "That was _so freaking cool._ I have _lightning_ now! Oh man, I can't wait to zap Heero…"

Quatre looked down at the seated pilot with his jaw agape. He expected more…. Confusion. Fear, maybe a little, confusion, definitely. But not such… joy. Duo wasn't even questioning the fact that he had fallen temporarily unresponsive and then started spouting green bolts. He just accepted it.

He looked around the room, feeling a little lost and confused himself. There were black scorch marks on more than few items in the room. The marble pieces were a few of the things that looked untouched. One of the Catelonia family portraits looked like it would need some repair, and numerous seats would need reupholstered. But besides that… the three of them were fine. One of them was _better_ than fine.

"You know," Duo said thoughtfully, rubbing one of his eyes and giving away his exhaustion, "I have the weirdest urge to bake something…. Is that crazy? I don't know if I've _ever_ baked anything…"

Quatre shrugged. He was going to have a lot to explain whenever they got back.

000

 _Author's notes: I know, I was away for a lot longer than I indicated. I started this chapter like three times, but lost interest in it each time and deleted it. I did try to make it a tad bit longer… Well, that's not true. It just sort of turned out that way, what with the fighting and all. At least there was some action? I don't know if I've ever written that much in just a 'fight' scene._

 _I know that the heart snatcher had some really cheesy dialogue. But that was sort of the appeal to the youma in the series. They were really cheesy. So, some of mine may be like that. Some may not. If you have any ideas for objects you would like to see turned into heart snatchers, I would love to know! I just had this weird image of this particular youma, so I had to go with the dishware. I couldn't help it._

 _I originally had a pretty set idea on who would get what Star Seeds, but I think I've changed my mind on some. I've decided to go less on straight up personalities and more based on their role in the group. Can you guess who Quatre and (surprise!) even possibly Dorothy?_

 _At the moment, my creativity is a bit drained. I just finished posting After Colony: Revelation, even the Epilogue, bringing my novel length Gundam Wing fic to an end after about eight years. I've been working on my own costume as well as a few others for the Superhero Bar Crawl I founded and that's up in just a few weeks. It's also wedding season and I'm doing the flowers for a few of my friends. So… my creative outlets are diverse at the moment and not leaving enough for inspiration! Hopefully it will get better as some of this stuff wraps up!_

 ** _Pat_** _this "Duo coming into his power" chapter was for you!_

 ** _Syl,_** _thank you so much for your kind review. I can honestly say it was your review that got my butt into gear to get this out today. I'm glad you're enjoying it, and mostly, I'm glad you're enjoying the fandom once more! I do apologize if there isn't enough Heero X Usagi. It will be a "slow burn" as far as that's concerned, for sure!_

 ** _Phoenix_** _, thank you for your review! I am always worried that the pacing will be off a bit, especially since I only have rough plans for each chapter, which means things can go in completely different directions! Considering how many people need to receive their powers in this story, things are likely to play out in an interesting way!_

 _To all of my readers, thanks for sticking with me through this brief hiatus! I can't promise I will update as fast as I was, but if you guys motivate me, I will do my best!_

 _Ever Your Servant,_

 _A.F_


	17. Chapter 17

Cosmic Apathy

T

 _After an eternity of living out her days alone, missing her friends and family, Sailor Cosmos refuses to fight for the realms. In an attempt to remind her of her humanity, she is dropped into a needy realm and forced to survive without the Silver Crystal [01xUsagi/Sailor Cosmos; 05xHotaru/Sailor Saturn]_

000

Chapter Sixteen

000

"Really, Sally, I'm fine," Quatre sighed and gently swatted the woman's hands away from him. He had tried his best to be polite and decline her persistent attempts to examine him, but she was relentless. Finally, she sighed and nodded, stepping away to give him some room.

He and Duo had returned to Headquarters as soon as they possibly could, bringing Dorothy's silverware set with them—just in case. She hadn't been keen on being left behind, but they all agreed that she needed to be on standby in case any of members of the Council insisted on a follow up meeting. The pilots then left before Trowa could try to fly out and meet them first. He had been very unsettled by the attack and didn't seem to believe Quatre when he said that he was fine.

Well, it seemed Trowa had a right to be worried. There was something… off… about the blonde pilot.

"I'm just going to go to my office… Do _not_ let Duo into the kitchen. We don't need to face the ramifications of his sudden desire to get _creative_. We don't need Nancy threatening to quit again."

Nancy, the head chef at the Preventers' Headquarters, was known to make quite the scene when someone—usually Duo—was in the kitchen without her permission. In the past few months, she had increased her verbal resignations to about two every three weeks. It was an increase from her once a month 'resignations'. Quatre suspected it had to do with Usagi's appearance and her desire for late night snacks…

"That's amazing," Hotaru said, releasing Duo's hand and bringing her own to her chest. It was humming with energy. Energy that had passed into her from him. "The Star Seed is completely settled."

Usagi still held Duo's other hand as she nodded. He stared back at her with his brow raised. "I would venture a guess that Duo was more open to the power than Zechs was."

The pilot tugged his hand free from the woman and wiped it against his clothes. Little sparks appeared, much like static electricity. "Listen, while I'm normally not opposed to pretty girls touching me, the two of you are seriously weirding me out. My hands are tingling—like they've fallen asleep or something."

"We're just surprised, that's all," Usagi replied with a shrug. "Zech's was very difficult. The power knocked him out, and he refused to let it settle into his core. I thought it would be the same for anyone who was in the same situation. But you… you didn't need help."

 _You didn't need_ _ **me.**_

"It wasn't easy, I can tell ya' that," Duo said and crossed his arms, "but I just knew I had to do something to save the others and… and I heard it telling me that it could help. Trust me, I'm not exactly the sort of person to go around and believing disembodied voices, but it was like…"

His expression changed. His mouth snapped shut, and the casual conversation disappeared. To Usagi, it looked like he was remembering something as he stared off at nothing in particular. He finally tore his eyes away from wherever it was he was look and shook his head.

"Nothing, nevermind. I don't know what it was like. It just… _was_. That's all."

It was obvious that there was more to the story, but Usagi wasn't going to push the issue. It didn't matter. She didn't need to know the details. All that mattered was that Jupiter had chosen a new host, and though it was odd to not see Makoto standing before her, she still felt the same strong, willful presence at her side. She couldn't talk to her friend, but even if she could, Usagi didn't know what she would say. Lifetimes had passed since the last time that she had seen Jupiter.

At least the Preventers now had two people who could possibly fight the heart snatchers, beyond Hotaru. Usagi figured they would need all of the help that they could get.

She pat Duo on the shoulder briefly before she exited the room. They were in the downstairs entertainment room, since Quatre refused to go to the medical wing. Heero was on a conference call with Dorothy and Relena, and he eyed her as she walked by. She didn't even spare him a glance. Instead, she went straight for the elevator.

Usagi had to wait for it to come back down from the fourth floor. When the doors opened, she expected to waltz right in—but she couldn't. Quatre was blocking the way. He was on the floor, his hand gripping the front of his shirt tightly and a pained look on his face. For a moment, she contemplated going to get the others, but she pushed the thought from her mind and knelt down next to him, blocking the doorway with her body.

"Quatre—what's wrong? What's happening?"

He didn't answer right away. When he did, it was through gritted teeth. "My heart—it just… won't stop pounding. It's been like this since that… thing… attacked me. It just started getting worse."

"Why didn't you say anything?" Usagi hissed, placing her hand on his back to try to help steady him. "Let me get Sally—"

"No," he quickly said, "no. Don't bother… they can't do anything. Please, just… let the doors close. In or out, it doesn't matter, just let them shut."

She didn't hesitate this time, and she slipped into the elevator and pressed the button to go up towards his office. The elevator wasn't exactly the best place to have a _fit_ of sorts. "Walk me through it, Quatre, what are you feeling?"

His breathing started to become labored. She could hear him gasping as he tried to steady it, but to no avail. "It isn't… physical."

Of course, everyone had more or less mentioned Quatre's unique empathetic abilities to her in passing, so Usagi was not necessarily caught off guard by his comment. She suspected that he would end up with a deeper connection to the youma of the Tao Nebula than the others. She could understand his desire to get away from the others. Though Duo may have been able to possibly relate, he couldn't possibly _understand._

When they reached the office floor, Usagi forced Quatre to stand, using her own body to hoist him up. "Just make it to your office, Quatre. It will be okay."

Though she was trying to put him at ease, she suspected she sounded a bit colder than she meant to. She was focused on his door and determined to get the two of them into a bit of seclusion. She wanted to be able to help him—if he would let her. They stumbled through the hallway, and they had to pause while Quatre caught his breath every few steps.

He practically dove onto the leather couch once they were into the room. Usagi shut the door before joining him, positioning herself on the edge of the solid wood coffee table next to him. Quatre was sprawled out, and now both of his hands were tearing at his chest through his shirt.

"Talk to me, Quatre, I can't help you unless you let me," she said. Her voice came out smoother than before. Though he was in obvious pain, she did not look away. She did not even flinch as he gave muffled cry and threw his head back.

"She's angry," he finally said, with a hint of a forced smile on his face, "she thinks this would have been easier if I had let it take my heart to unlock the power first."

Mars was the first one to pop into Usagi's mind. If someone would be brash enough to be 'angry' that their heart wasn't taken…

No.

 _Venus._

Usagi reached out and took Quatre's left hand, forcing it away from his chest. "Are you fighting her intentionally? Are you keeping her from merging with your core?"

He didn't answer right away, though until now, all of his responses were delayed anyhow. "It's my heart… _my_ heart. She shouldn't be trying to take it!"

She nodded. Yes, _that_ was why Quatre was in such pain. Unlike Zechs who did nothing to help or hinder his Star Seed, or Duo who actively accepted his, Quatre was trying to fight it. He was trying to protect his kind heart, and she couldn't blame him for that.

"She doesn't want to take your heart Quatre, I promise," Usagi said gently, trying to get him to calm down at least a bit. "That's not how this works—sure, you may have a new quirk or two… You may have the sudden desire to read manga in a blanket fort, like Duo wants to go bake a cake. It's not even a _she_ , not really. It's a Star Seed. It's power, and it's chosen to give itself to you."

It seemed that perhaps he was considering her words. Though he did show signs of letting up, he did squeeze her hand as she spoke, then relaxed it a bit more.

"It I'm right, it's the embodiment of Venus. I'm sure you know who the Roman goddess Venus was, right? Aphrodite?"

"Goddess of… Love."

Usagi nodded. "That's right. Mina—she was the one who was Sailor Venus. She had one of the brightest heart crystals I had ever seen. It's actually kind of funny… as hard as you fought to keep your heart crystal, she practically let hers go. She wanted to see it to prove she had a good heart. But she really didn't need to prove anything. We all knew she had one of the strongest hearts."

He listened to her speak, and perhaps she was helping. It would have been easy for her to try to guide the Star Seed along, but with him fighting so hard, Usagi was sure he would feel betrayed by her interference. He needed to accept it on his own.

"When I met you, I thought that you reminded me of Ami—Mercury. She was brilliant, a certified genius. But she was quiet and reserved, more like Trowa, I think. She would never have stepped into the Preventers' Head role like you. Mina though… She was a great leader. She was always supposed to _be_ the leader. Not me. She could make anyone like her and though she hardly seemed like it when you looked at her, she was a great warrior. I guess I didn't notice it before now because her airheaded personality is so much different from yours… but yes, I can definitely see why she picked you, of all people."

Quatre looked over at her intently, and she stared back into his deep blue eyes. Blue, like both Ami and Mina, and even herself, at one point in time. His breathing started to slow and he continue to take deep inhales before slowly exhaling. He didn't let go of her hand.

"You're crying," he finally said, and she looked at him in confusion.

She wasn't…

He released her hand and reached out to wipe a tear from her cheek. She hadn't even noticed when her eyes started watering. "I—I'm sorry, I don't know why that happened."

"You miss your friends, don't you?"

Usagi shook her head. "No. I hardly remember them, to be honest. It's been a very long time since they left me."

"Are you sure they left you?" Quatre asked, furrowing his brows slightly. His free hand was still on his chest, but it was no longer clutching his shirt. It lay relaxed, just above his heart.

"They died, and they didn't come back. They always came back. Then one day… they didn't," she said and looked away. They were moving into a territory she didn't care to visit again. She shouldn't have even told him about Ami and Minako. She didn't know what caused her to share those brief memories.

"Maybe they were waiting until you needed them again."

There was a knock at the door. Before Quatre could even bid them entrance, the handle was turning. Trowa entered, having just returned from his medical seminar. For a man who was typically quite good at hiding his emotions and expression overall, he briefly revealed his concern. Of course, all he was seeing was Quatre, who he already knew had been attacked, laying in somewhat obvious pain—looking pale and sickly as sweat beaded at his forehead.

"I'll leave you two be," Usagi said softly, glad for the interruption. As she stood, Quatre's hand shot out and squeezed hers one last time. "If you'll embrace the essence of Venus, I know you'll use the power wisely. I really think you were meant to have it."

He let her go as she walked away, passing by Trowa. She tried to give him a nod to reassure the tall pilot, but she could tell it did nothing for him. Quatre would have to reassure him on his own. She shut the door behind her, leaving the pair alone. As she did, she took a moment to lean against it and let out an exhale she hadn't quite realized she was holding.

Her friends were waiting until she needed them again? It was absurd, no matter how she tried to look at it, and it wasn't just her apathy causing her to think so.

She had never _stopped_ needing them.

000

 _Author's Notes: Once again, I am sorry that there was such a long delay. I have just a few days left until the Superhero Bar Crawl, and I still have to finish up The Husband's costume. Thankfully, wedding season is over with, which should free up some of my time! I still cannot promise a quite turn around time on the chapters, however._

 _I know that this is lackluster compared to the action packed chapter before. I don't want each pilot to come into their powers in the same exact way. I am thinking there will be more action next chapter, though not quite the way we've seen before. I am also thinking it may focus a bit more on Hotaru and Wufei, since they haven't really been seen much in the past few chapters! Perhaps a snippet from Heero… we will see._

 _ **Pat**_ _, yes, Quatre is Venus! I was leaning toward Mercury before, but I changed my mind! Also, thank you for the extra motivational 'kick!'_

 _ **Phoenix**_ _, thank you soooo much for the awesome suggestions! I hadn't thought of some of those, but I think I will definitely be including some of them! I have some great ideas for some of those unique/personal objects, and I look forward to getting to incorporate them! I'm glad you're enjoying the story, thank you for sticking with me!_

 _ **Really like this**_ _, thank you for reviewing! I am glad that it's caught you attention, and I hope I can try to keep it interesting enough for you!_

 _ **Datajana,**_ _I am so glad that there are still people coming back to this fandom! I was thinking I caught most of the returners when I started posting a month or so ago, but now I have hope that maybe others will come back to it if I keep the story going! Thank you so much for your review! Hopefully you will continue to enjoy it!_

 _To all of my other readers, thank you! I really couldn't do this without your support. I will always gladly take suggestions. If you have things you would like to see, I will try my best to work them in the story for you! I know I have plans for a fluffy chapter I'm just… not sure at what point I should put it in! Don't worry, I promise there will be some Heero/Usagi coming up! (Like I said, I just like a slow development!)_

 _Ever Your Servant,_

 _A.F_


	18. Chapter 18

Cosmic Apathy

T

Aeternus. Flamma

 _After an eternity of living out her days alone, missing her friends and family, Sailor Cosmos refuses to fight for the realms. In an attempt to remind her of her humanity, she is dropped into a needy realm and forced to survive without the Silver Crystal [01xUsagi/Sailor Cosmos; 05xHotaru/Sailor Saturn]_

000

Chapter Seventeen

000

After the botched attempt at stealing Quatre's heart, it seemed that activity from the Tao invaders died down. There were momentary blips on the Preventers' radar, but nothing strong enough to give any indication of an attack. Hotaru had been cooperative in using her abilities to pop around the globe to check in on the sources, but after they consistently came up empty, Quatre had her stop. In some ways, they were relieved at the calmness. However, each and every one of them knew the truth.

Something was coming.

It was a concept that all of them were familiar with—lulling the enemy into a false sense of security. The heart snatchers were likely hoping to catch them off guard, and that was something they just couldn't allow.

So, despite their peace, the Preventers and their consultants were on edge. The only silver lining was that the ESUN leaders had momentarily backed down and let the Preventers work.

Hotaru's training sessions had expanded to include Quatre. After just one meeting, Usagi abandoned them. Each of the three men were able to tap into their new found abilities at least a small bit—creating energy sparks between them under Hotaru's wise eyes. Still, there was nothing from Usagi. No matter what she did, she couldn't muster up even a flicker of power.

She couldn't take the disappointment—not from Hotaru, of course. That didn't bother Usagi one bit. Hotaru's judgmental attitude was something she had long since grown accustomed to. No, now the problem lay within the three new sets of eyes staring back at her each time she tried and failed to call forth some of her former power. Usagi couldn't see just Quatre, Duo, or even Zechs. She now subconsciously saw her old friends, and rival, staring back at her.

To make matters worse, she was having trouble sleeping. She had _never_ had problems sleeping in all of her long life. She _loved_ sleeping. Usagi's mind was plagued with old memories: memories that she had worked very hard to forget.

So she sat on the island of the kitchen, legs dangling over the side haphazardly, sipping a cup of tea. Her eyes were occasionally drawn to the liquor cabinet to her right and she considered spiking her drink. Maybe it would have helped her sleep. Considering how fast her mortal body healed itself, she figured she would have to drink an entire bottle of something before she felt the effects. Even then, it would be short lived.

Usagi sighed and set the porcelain cup to the side. The sun was just starting to come up. She hadn't left the kitchen in almost two hours. She knew that the others would be starting to wake soon, and she would likely have company. Even as she thought the words, she jumped at the sound of the outside door opening up behind her. She jerked suddenly to twist herself to look behind her and knocked the cup right to the ground.

"Damn it, you scared me," she groaned when she saw Heero walking in. He was wearing athletic shorts and tennis shoes, and likely was just coming back in from a run.

Heero raised the hem of his sleeveless shirt and wiped his face off into the fabric. "If you were sitting at the table like a normal person, you would have seen me coming."

Usagi rolled her eyes and scowled at him as she grabbed the dish towel sitting next to her. "Please. As if you have any room to talk about being a _normal_ person."

He didn't say anything as he walked by the table and around the island. She was just about to hop down to start cleaning up the teacup mess when he held his hand up and took the towel from her hand. He quietly knelt down and picked up the broken pieces before wiping up the tea.

"You don't have to—"

"You're barefoot. You could cut yourself." Heero, ever efficient, cleaned up the mess in moments. Usagi shrugged and let him continue. She stared down at him with mild interest.

"So do you do this every day?"

He pulled open the trash and tossed the shards into the bag. "No. Most people don't break dishware around here."

"You know what I meant," Usagi replied and scrunched up her nose. She watched as he went to the refrigerator and then the bread drawer. He turned and stared at her for a moment before approaching her. She gave him a look of confusion as he entered her personal space and started to lean forward. She awkwardly leaned backwards to avoid him. "Ew, you are so disgusting. I think if you get any closer, you're going to get your sweat all over me, blah." She faked a wretch, but he ignored her as he reached over her head for one of the skillets hanging from a hook.

Once he had it, he backed away and returned to the fridge to pull out a carton of eggs. "I work out in the mornings. Maybe you should consider doing the same."

Usagi opened her mouth and then closed it again with a snap before giving his back a hard glare. "Are you… are you calling me fat?"

For a moment, it looked as if Heero's shoulders stiffened as he cracked an egg and poured it into his skillet. "No," he said lowly with some annoyance, "I just mean that if you aren't doing any _other_ sort of training, you should do _something_."

"Hotaru put you up to this, didn't she?"

Heero didn't respond, or, if he did give one of his low hums, she couldn't hear it over the sizzling of the eggs. She continued to stare at his back as if doing so would make him turn around and answer her, but she had no such luck. Instead, she only ended up noticing more and more discolorations across his shoulders and upper arms. Her eyes flickered downwards towards his exposed calves only to find more. She hadn't noticed before just how scarred he was.

"Would I get to leave the grounds?" She finally spoke after a few more minutes of silence.

He shrugged as finished scrambling his eggs and lifted the skillet from the stove top to pour the contents onto a plate. "There are some trails that lead into the mountain. Still technically our grounds, though."

"I don't have any running shoes." Of course, it was a pretty lame excuse, but it was the first one she could think of since she wanted decline. She may have traveled the universe and fought some of the worst evils, but that didn't make her like physical activity any more than she did as a teenager. Still, she supposed it was better than simply sitting around the base, bored and on edge…

"Talk to Noin or Sally, they'll get you what you want," Heero said and waved the spatula before tossing it into the sink for someone else to clean up. He filled a glass with water and turned to face her, his plate in hand. "Do it, or don't do it. I don't care. But if you're looking for something to change—whether in yourself, your situation, or whatever—it isn't going to happen if you sit around and do nothing."

Without another word, Heero walked away and exited out the back door once more. Usagi quietly waited until he was gone before she hopped off the counter and went to hide herself in her room for a little while longer.

000

"These won't be usable for much longer," Hotaru sighed and carefully placed the silver food lid into the container before her. She stepped back and crossed her arms, tilting her head to the side. There was a _zap_ as the power ran through the wiring that encased the box. She had to wait a few moments as the energy dissipated so that she could safely open the container once more and touch the item. When she did, she shook her head.

There was a frustrated groan behind her. "This is getting infuriating," Wufei muttered and pulled off his glasses, rubbing his eyes. Hotaru turned from their experiment and approached Wufei's work bench.

"I'm sorry," she replied with a sigh, leaning her elbows on the cold metal, "if I could remember more, I would tell you. It's just been—"

"—a long time, I know." Wufei rubbed the back of his neck and sat back, staring at the high ceiling of the Preventers' concealed hangar.

Though it had taken the other gundam pilots a long time to see it, Wufei was known to have an affinity for higher learning. It wasn't until after he was well established in the Preventers that he started seeking new education opportunities during their time s of reprieve. He had been working on his doctorate when the heart snatchers invaded, requiring him to return to active duty in the Southeast Asia districts.

Considering that he, personally, had no way to fight the new enemy, working on a containment system to distribute to other basis was his best plan of attack.

"You'll have to get me another one," Wufei finally said.

"Me?" Hotaru replied with a raised brow. "These two were defeated by Duo and Usagi. If I had faced them, there would be nothing left—not even the mundane shell the youma had hidden in. My abilities are not meant to be used on pawns."

Wufei huffed and if he had been a lesser person, Hotaru was sure he would have rolled his eyes at her. "An enemy is an enemy. Are you suggesting that you would rather leave the evil unchecked then to face them?"

"No, I'm saying that you won't get a usable test subject from me. I will face any enemy I have to, but you severely underestimate me if you think I will leave anything left of them." She did not smile as she spoke. She didn't want to give him the impression that she was joking or exaggerating. Instead, she stared back at Wufei, who tapped the end of his pencil against his notepad idly, and dared him to question her.

"I've learned that most people find that sort of arrogance unbecoming," he said and tossed his pencil down before leaning back and crossing his arms.

Hotaru shrugged. "It isn't arrogance. It's the truth. There's a reason why I'm one of the last ones left of the Senshi. I'm the one that's revived when there's no hope—when the only thing that remains is destruction. I'm not like the others. You should know, if the enemy succeeds in invading, I will have to do my job. They cannot be allowed to breed and spread."

As she stared back at him, it looked as if something had sparked behind Wufei's dark eyes. Perhaps he took her words as a threat—and they were, at least a little bit. Regardless, he didn't react. Hotaru wondered if it was because he knew she could beat him if he tried to attack. After another moment, however, his expression changed. His gaze turned distant and his mouth twitched upwards before he shook his head and looked away.

"If you have such great power, why don't you stop the enemy now? Why wait while they take more lives?"

"I don't know where they are," Hotaru replied with a small smile. "Even if we find them, if I have to be the one to stop them, I will take the whole planet with me. I am prepared to do it, if necessary. Balance has already decided that this world cannot be saved. I would like to give it a chance, though."

There was silence between them again while Wufei chose his words. She had noticed rather early on that despite his firm nature, he tried to be very careful and observant. Of course, there were times when that went entirely out the window and his emotions got the best of him—often, it was after Duo had been pestering him for some time.

Luckily, Hotaru was a very patient person herself. She didn't mind the silence between them. In fact, it was something of a relief after spending days with the other Preventers. She wasn't used to groups or crowds. She could only be with them for a short time before she felt her skin crawl.

"From the way you speak, you would have me believe you've destroyed numerous worlds. What would make this one any different?" When he spoke, he didn't give any indication that he was merely humoring her, much to her pleasure.

She looked down at the sleeve of her black shirt and pulled at it a bit before looking back up at Wufei. "This world is very similar to another one I spent time on. Usagi was able to save that world. She should have been able to save this one before it was ever in any real danger, but she didn't. I'm hoping that it isn't too late—that she'll find a way to fix it without me having to sacrifice myself."

Wufei raised a brow in curiosity and said, "Sacrifice yourself?"

"Yes," Hotaru nodded, "if I destroy a world, I destroy myself. You can't be surprised that so much power comes at a great cost, can you?"

"I suppose not," he said. Just as he did, his phone vibrated to alert them that dinner was ready back inside the main base. Wufei started to pack up his workstation so that nothing would be lost by the time he returned to it. "So that's why you're helping us? So you won't have to die?"

Hotaru reached down to pick up a pencil and eraser that had fallen, and gave a small laugh as she did so. "It's more than that. It isn't so much because I don't want to _die_ , it's because I want to actually _live._ I would like a chance to stay here a little bit longer, and see what is has to offer." She stood and passed the items to Wufei's outstretched hand. "Can you blame me?"

000

 _Author's Notes: So…. Yeah… I don't really have a good excuse for why I vanished for so long. I just… lost motivation, I guess. I got on a Ghost Hunt kick and wrote Ciao Poveglia, which is, debatably, my most successful story when you consider how small the fandom in. If you like a bit of horror, I would say give it a shot. I had a lot of fun writing it, and I really discovered a lot about myself while writing it. Namely, that I have found my distinct writing style and that I enjoy writing suspense. Honestly, I'm not sure how it will impact this story. I keep forgetting where I had this going, and then I have to re-plan it in my head!_

 _A few extra thoughts and whatnot… You may see a slight shift in the characters. I have thought a lot about the pilots and 'fandom' voice. Fandom voice is what I call the way they are portrayed in fanfictions quite frequently. For example, a lot of people may dislike how 'talkative' Heero was. But, to be honest, when you watch the show, he isn't the cold, stoic person everyone makes him out to be. We see him talking to himself and being somewhat amused that he can go in and change his bills to paid at school. He may not be social, but he can have a conversation—even if it is blunt and uninteresting._

 _Wufei, in that same respect, is not someone who stomps around yelling at people. Remember when he and Duo were locked up with the air supply being cut off? Does he freak out and threaten to kill everyone? Nope. Lays down and takes a nap. In his backstory, we learn that he is a brainy scholar. In the show, he figured out that OZ set Heero up to kill the pacifists before anyone else does. I decided that when all of the wars needing fought have ended, he would go back to that life._

 _As I've mentioned before, this whole fic was sparked because I had finally finished my other GW fic. Well, after about a year of having it finished, I randomly got bored and started a sequel. I've had a few Beta readers take a look at what I've done so far, and they're pretty happy with it—which is saying something because they haven't even read the original story. The writing is muchmuchmuch better, and it is entirely from Wufei's perspective, which, I'm finding, I'm enjoying writing. It is primarily about his growth and adjustment to civilian life with a bit of romance mixed in (though, as you can tell, my version of 'romance' is very little over a very long period of time.) I'm not sure when I will start posting it, but hopefully some of you will give it a shot when I do!_

 _Thank you to all of the reviewers who have continusously left feedback and sent me messages. I promise that I have been seeing all of them and it has made me feel suuuuper guilty for not updating. I'm not sure when I will update next. This one was just sort of out of the blue because I'm trying to kick start my creativity again. (Not working.)_

 _Ever Your Servant,_

 _A.F_


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